Finding a Home
by Rubek
Summary: After a 400 year slumber, a woman has awoken into a world that is vastly different from when she had left it. With powers that are considered 'creepy' and a best friend who could knock her unconscious with her little finger, she begins to wonder if she can finally relax and start a new life. A life on the seas. Rated M for language and probably suggestive scenes.
1. Finally Awake

A terrible war raged through an unknown land, taking the lives of children, women and men alike. The bombs that were thrown from the planes above would spew acid that would melt the skin off of anyone unlucky enough to be hit and that was if the explosion of it crashing into the ground didn't kill you first. Gas that was poured from canisters would liquidise the organs of the enemies and poison the water supply, assassins would kill anyone who tried to maintain the order that they needed so badly. It was a war against two tribes, they lived on the same land but hatred meant that they could not form an alliance, however, this time, something had caused the two neighbouring civilisations to finally resort to an all out attack. During the struggle, four ordinary women gave up their humanity to save their friends, family and loved ones. Their strength, mind power, hearts and body became the very power that they used to try and stop the horrible war that tore the two worlds apart. Together, they desperately fought to maintain order and regain the peace that they wanted. However, during the confusion and calamity, their homeland marked them as the enemies, traitors and the very things that needed to be killed in order for peace to grasp at the hearts of the people. Their strange powers were feared enough that the people of the land forgot about their hatred and worked together to capture and kill the women who tried their best to show they meant no harm.

The four women were hunted to the ends of the Earth, not a friend in sight to help them hide from their terrible fate. They were labelled monsters and the dark side of the tribes wanted to take these women to try and experiment on them, figure out the source of their power. To increase the chances of not being discovered by their enemies who wanted them dead, they split up and vanished. No one heard from them, not their family or their friends. They weren't heard from for years and soon the world began to forget about the world's most dangerous criminals and eventually, they became a myth, a bedtime story that parents told to their children who didn't behave.

* * *

><p><em><span>405 years later.<span>_

"Oi, Steve, pass me the pickaxe would you? I found some impressive looking crystal over here!" Shouted a man whose white hair stuck to his forehead with sweat. He had been working from early in the morning and they had finally managed to break through the enormous amount of rock surrounding a large gem that no one had ever seen before. On the island above, the only thing that could be seen of this gem was a small, jagged formation of the pale blue stone. No matter how much pressure was put onto that gem, it would not break free of the ground.

So that meant that poor men like Steve and Kerman were forced to scale the side of the cliff and start their treacherous journey toward the crystal.

"Get it yersel, fat ass!" despite his words, Kerman saw a large object flying toward him and he moved his head to the side to avoid the sharp metal of the pickaxe to puncture him. Instead, he watched as it embedded itself into the rock beside him and he sighed and pushed the sticky, white fringe from his face before reaching toward the pickaxe and yanking it free.

"Cheers!" he shouted toward his friend, chuckling slightly when he heard a grunt and then silence. He allowed Steve to have a break, he wasn't feeling particularly well today and so his strikes against the rock were doing more damage than any good. However, he didn't expect the sick man to end up drinking so much that he couldn't tell which way was up.

"Kerman *hic* The moon is out! I've never seen it so *hic* cloooose!" When Kerman looked behind him, he noticed that Steve was on his back and staring up into the night sky, the silver haze the moon light created caused everything to look mystical and shiny, even that stupid bottle of alcohol that was balanced on the very edge and would probably fall into the ocean below with the slightest push of a breeze.

Kerman shook his head, swinging the pickaxe down onto the rock once, twice, three times before he heard a loud crumbling noise. When the white haired man looked up, what he saw caused a slight scream to tear from his throat. Above him, rocks crumbled down, he barely had enough time to jump out of the way as large chunks of the land above rolled down and toward the end of the cave they had created. Kerman ran toward his friend, stumbling slightly as the ground shook from the force of the cave falling apart. He eventually reached his friend who was snoring, completely oblivious to the dangers that were hurtling toward them. Kerman reached forward and grabbed the drunk man by the arm, pulling him to the side just in time to avoid a large patch of dirt that tumbled from the now caved in cave they had created and they heard the dull splash as it landed into the ocean below them.

"Jeez, what happened!?" Steve shouted, coughing and waving his hand in front of his face to get rid of the dust that was in the air around him. The purple haired man squinted through the orange haze of dust, trying to make out where he was, where his friend was and where the entrance of the cave was. So far, he couldn't make out anything.

"I must have hit the wrong rock..." Came a reply, followed by wheezing and a groan as he stepped back in front of the cave, pulling his confused friend with him. However, they didn't see a mess like they had expected. The dirt had landed, crumbled and became the soft mud in which they stepped on to walk toward the large crystal, no longer obscured by the rocks that had fallen from their place and down the large cliff face. It was smooth, shining in the moon light and almost seemed to glisten. However, what caught the attention of the two men was not the rare and expensive looking crystal...it was the sleeping woman in the centre. The woman was pale, they could tell that much even through the light crystal, it could possibly be from the fact that she was under the land and not able to get any sun. She held her dainty hands in front of her face and her knees were partially tucked up and into her chest, she was quite clearly shielding herself from something. Her bright orange hair looked as if it was in the process of being knocked around by strong winds before being held into place by the crystal.

What was even more odd were her clothes. On this island the women wore dresses, it was a statement that they were proud of their femininity. However, the woman in front of these men wore tight black trousers. She also wore a red shirt that stopped underneath her rib cage, however, it showed enough of her stomach to be considered incredibly indecent by these men. The sleeves reached her elbows and were form fitted and they also noticed that the neckline creeped up her neck, but was in the shape of a diamond above her cleavage, showing the strange tattoo that was in the centre. Her black boots were also pretty high, they wouldn't be surprised if she towered over both of these men.

"Am I still drunk?" Steve asked, rubbing his eyes before staring up toward the woman again.

"Unless you slipped something in my tea, I think this is really happening!" Before they could dwell on the matter further, the crystal began to glow brighter. It seemed that the moonlight was powering the strange crystal. As the glow became brighter, the men had enough time to see the crystal begin to crack before they had to shield their eyes from the powerful glow. Eventually, they heard the whole thing shatter and the ground begin to shake dangerously. However, when the bright lights vanished, they noticed that the woman who was trapped was no longer in front of them. The crystal had been completely shattered, large chunks were littered around the ground and their brains began to wonder how much each piece would cost when they finally got to sell them. As quickly as those thoughts came, they were chased away by the sound of the voice of a woman.

"My my. So it's you who woke me from my slumber? Here I was expecting a knight on a noble steed" The two men whipped around quickly, staring at the woman in front of them. They were right about her pale skin and her orange hair reached her shoulder blades, however, what shocked them more was her deep red eyes that made them flinch when she looked toward them. Kerman and Steve tensed, she looked incredibly serious and menacing and as the mysterious woman stepped closer to them they were too frightened to take a step back, her aura radiated something that just rang trouble and shook them to their very core.

What they didn't expect was for a laugh to break through the tense atmosphere.

"Relax, guys" She waved her hands in front of her, a wide smile stretched across her face and her eyes closed in mirth. However, she quickly righted herself and leaned toward the two men with a hand on her hip. "Could you possibly answer a few questions for me?"

* * *

><p><em><span>On Whitebeards ship<span>_

"Luna?"

"Luuuuuna!"

LUUUUU-" the offending mouth was quickly covered by a smaller, almost white, hand. The woman, whose hair was pure white, skin that almost matched that shade and eyes that were blood red was staring off out into the sea. She could feel it, the release in tension, the sharp sting in the back of her mind as a connection she had long since lost suddenly came back. Luna stepped toward the end of the ship, the waves seemed to be directed toward their ship, but she knew that the power she felt had caused the waves to shudder.

"She is awake..." Luna mumbled, tears falling from her eyes and she covered her mouth to try and muffle the sounds that she made. Around her, the Whitebeard Pirates looked toward her, worried that their sister was crying, however, when she turned around to face them her eyes sparkled with happiness. "My best friend is awake!" She cheered loudly, small smirks formed on the faces of the men around her.

However, the man who had rudely tried to wake up the woman from her daze looked confused. He wore an orange cowboy hat and his fire ability meant that he was never cold so he allowed himself to strut around without a t-shirt on.

"Uhh...Who?" He knocked the hat off of his head, the sting keeping the hat attached to him by dangling from his neck.

"Lavinia...My best friend...She is finally awake" and she quickly scurried to her room. Her long blue jeans making a slight scraping noise as the fabric swished together slightly, she knew today was going to be a good day so she even made sure to wear her lucky purple shirt. The crew watched as she slammed her bedroom door, loud clanging and grunts were heard shortly after. Ace shuffled toward his blonde haired friend who was leaning against a wall, a small smile on his face.

"Marco, what is she doing?" He asked, still staring at the door that the young woman ran through. The confusion that Ace felt intensified when Marco merely chuckled and watched as the young woman came strutting from her room, the large bag that she was carrying behind her seemed far too big for her to carry, but Luna had monstrous strength so they had very little to be worried about. She dragged the large bag behind her and pushed it upright when she stopped in front of a large man who was sat on an even larger chair. He had an amused expression on his face as he watched her struggle to find a spot that was flat so that the bag would balance.

"Luna?" His voice seemed to boom, he was clearly hiding a laugh as he watched as she slowly became incredibly frustrated that she couldn't balance the thing.

"Pops!" Luna quickly turned, hand to her forehead in a salute and she cringed slightly when her bag toppled over and she heard a few curses slip from the mouths of the pirates around her. "My sister is awake! Do I have your permission to find her and bring her here?"

The silence that followed after her statement seemed to make her tense. Would Pops say no?

"GURARARARA! Luuuuuna, we shall all go and meet this famous Lavinia of yours. You talk about her so much that she is almost like family! Don't you think we should see this girlie?" All of the pirates that were there to witness the scene nodded, cheered and smiled at the thought. Luna felt lucky, she met some of the friendliest pirates that accepted her so easily and the three years that she had spent with them all seemed to make her feel like this was her family. Whitebeard stared down at the young girl and he smiled fondly when he noticed a smile light up her face. He could still remember the day when they found her floating in the water, face down. The whole crew thought she was dead, especially when she didn't wake up for ages. It was during the night in the fourth week that she had been on the ship did she finally wake up...and boy, did she wake up with no intention of staying.

Whitebeard chuckled slightly as he remembered that she tried to fight them, scared that she was kidnapped and going to be tortured or something. Luna was shockingly strong for a girl her size and she quickly took down his sons that were slightly weaker, despite that she ensured she didn't damage the ship. Eventually, she came across Marco. He could remember her shocked expression as he blocked every single blow she delivered with such ease and when she finally relented and relaxed, she finally began to trust them. After three long years, she became a sister to them all...a sister who was constantly trying to beat Marco and never succeeding.

"THANK YOU, POPS!" and she scurried back to her room, dragging the large bag behind her.

* * *

><p><span><em>Back with Lavinia.<em>

She had been running for the past few hours, she didn't know where she was or where the path through the thick threes was taking her. The two men she had met had told her what date this was and she refused to believe that she was in the future...over 400 years into the future. It had to be a trick, right? On top of that, the money hungry bastards on this island had tried to capture her, assumed that because she was found in a rare and expensive crystal that she would also fetch a hefty price. So, she obviously ran. The problem with this experience was that poor Lavinia was athletically challenged, she was smart, she could take down her enemies by outwitting them...but could she run? Not without some serious discomfort on her part.

She pushed branches from her face, jumped over fallen logs, swatted away angry looking bugs that would have otherwise tried to fly into her eyeball because they seemed to be quite suicidal. Lavinia began to breath hard and her muscles started to burn from the strain of running for so long, the villagers were still after her though. She could hear their loud screaming and shouting to 'get her!'. Eventually, she managed to break out from the trees and she stopped for a few seconds, placed her hands on her hips and made sure to breath carefully, trying to regain some of the oxygen that was eluding her when she was running. She briefly noticed that this side was also a dead end since the ground turned to sand and beyond that was the large expanse of the ocean. The redhead groaned, flinching slightly when the sound of the people behind her grew closer and she quickly ran to her left, annoyed that the sand made her sink slightly. In fact, a few times she lost her footing and almost fell and that wouldn't have been the most graceful thing anyone had ever seen.

"Hey girlie! Why are you running so fast at such a late time?" Came a loud voice. Lavinia knew that it could well be another villager trying to capture her, but she still stopped and turned toward the voice that had beckoned her. She soon forgot about the people chasing her like madmen and took the chance to laugh at the appearance of the man in front of her. He had some pretty big hair, it was a pompadour hairstyle and it was a light brown in colour, he wore a white suit with the trousers ending about mid calf and he wore odd looking black boots on his feet. His face contorted to confusion before he scowled at the woman in front of him when she continued to laugh. The scar on the side of his face showed her that he was a fighter.

"Wow ! Your hair is amazing!" She wiped a tear from her face before stepping toward him quickly and held out her hand. Judging by the boat, Lavinia knew that this man didn't know who she was since he had probably just arrived here...maybe he could help her from the island and away from the creepy people chasing after her with the very small boat that he was using. "Hello! I'm Lavinia. I'm being chased by the angry villagers who want to sell me" She smiled, still holding her hand out to the taller man in front of her.

He blinked before reaching forward slowly and gripping her hand, his larger one engulfing her smaller one quite easily.

"Thatch. 4th Division commander of the-"

"SHE IS WITH A PIRATE!" the voices that screeched through the tree line suddenly became so loud that she could not longer hear his introduction. Lavinia turned quickly, glaring at the crowd of people that had gathered with torches so that they could see the woman that ran away. They smirked menacingly at the two figures who were still in the process of shaking hands, just watching the scene unfold before them. However, Thatch felt the young woman tense and he knew that they were causing a bit of trouble for her. He wasn't usually a hero, but any man who was a man wasn't going to let anyone innocent get hurt, regardless of their gender.

"We have no problem with you, Pirate. Hand her over. She is going to make this island SO FUCKING RICH!" A scrawny man in front bellowed, his eyes held a crazed glint as his cackle echoed through the night. He looked revolting, his black hair stuck to his skin and she didn't know if it was from sweat or the grease of his hair. He had no muscle on his body, bones seemed to almost stick through his skin and his eyes looked sunken, black, crazy. Lavinia flinched slightly and began to pull her hand from the hand of the man next to her so that she could run. However, she looked to him with wide eyes when he didn't let go. His cold eyes didn't turn to her, they continued to glare at the people in front of him.

"So you chased this scared little girlie and you want to sell her?" he asked. Thatch seemed calm but Lavinia could see his muscles in his hand twitching as he tried so hard not to clench the fist that was holding hers gently. She was grateful for this, since waking up she had noticed that the men here were larger than what she was used to. Before she was encased in ice, she towered over every man she had ever come across...she was only 5ft 9 but she was positive some men here could reach 7ft easily. When the men in front of him didn't answer and instead all stepped forward, leering at the woman who didn't really want to fight them, he pulled her arm gently and stood in front of her.

"Thatch...What are you doing?" Her voice was quiet, surprised. After years of running from people who wanted to kill, experiment and god knows what else to her, she felt uneasy when someone tried to protect her. Did he have an ulterior motive? When he didn't respond and instead unsheathe his sword, she began to panic slightly. Lavinia didn't have time to run because in a blink of an eye the villagers were on the ground, groaning from several welts, guts and bruises on their bodies. Some were unconscious and the others that weren't slowly got to their feet, dragging the others behind them as they ran away. Lavinia peered from behind him, wide eyed and gaping.

"Wow..."

"Heh, that was nothing" He sheathed his sword quickly and turned around, his smug expression causing the redhead to lose her amazed expression and for her to raise an eyebrow slightly at the man. Thatch rubbed his nose slightly, smirking at the young girl before his eyes widened in recognition at the name that she introduced herself with.

"So, Lavinia. Do you know someone called Luna, by any chance?"

* * *

><p><strong>Rubek - This is just a story I thought of one evening. I do plan on this becoming a romance but I am not all that good at writing romantic scenes so I might end up focusing on battle scenes and whatnot, ya know, because romance scenes make me feel awkward. Worry not, I will overcome my fear! Leave reviews if you so wish. *Salute*<strong>


	2. Beehives and Mazes

Lavinia had been travelling with Thatch since he told her about Luna and that she was safe and sound with friends. Apparently her white haired friend spoke about her a lot, that's where he recognised her name. He laughed at the redheads shocked expression when he told her that Luna lived with Pirates, that she was a pirate and that he himself was one of the very pirates that saved the short white haired friend of theirs from drowning. Lavinia quickly grew on the older man, they got a long quite well and were easily able to joke around after the first few hours. Thatch also mentioned that if it wasn't for the fact that he lost most of his food when he was attacked by a seaking, he wouldn't have stopped at that island at all. During the conversations they shared, he noticed that she was actually pretty shy despite what Luna had told them all. After they got supplies at the island that he had stopped, Thatch quickly dragged her out to sea and away from the people of Vercan Island. It was about 6 hours into their little trip to find Moby Dick, the boat that the pirates live on and he had already succeeding in making her too nervous to even glance upon the ship, let alone meet the people that knew so much rubbish about her.

"She told you what?!" Her voice shaking at the thought. Lavinia covered her face in embarrassment as the story began to unravel.

"She told us all that you took down about one hundred enemies by dancing provocatively...Didn't know what hit them" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and laughed when she groaned more.

"No! That didn't happen in the slightest. I can't even dance!" Lavinia laid back on the boat that the larger man was rowing for them. She had offered to help, but he had insisted that she just lay down and relax for a little bit. Lavinia closed her eyes, listening to the waves as they crashed against each other, the hissing it created lulling her into a relaxed state, the gentle swaying of the boat causing her eyes to drift shut slightly.

"So, Luna told us something else..." Thatch started, his voice deep and serious. He was facing out toward the sea and it was only when she sat up, curious, did he continue.

"Apparently you have strange powers, like she does..." Lavinia stared at him, all playfulness lost from the aura around them. Of course the woman was suspicious, she had acted too carelessly at the thought of her friend that she forgot that she could be being led to her death. Thatch noticed the shift in her demeanour and watched as her red eyes became cold. However, it didn't stop her from responding.

"That I do. The powers don't really have a name since they are pretty strange" Crossing her arms, she glanced away from the man and heard him sigh in defeat. Lavinia did feel somewhat mean, they had been travelling for hours and he had been nothing but kind to her, she just couldn't let go of the past. When she looked toward the man who was still rowing, she felt a little tug at her heart. Lavinia was surprised to admit that being with him was the first time she had ever fully relaxed, ever laughed so hard that tears fell from her eyes or felt confident enough to latch onto him when a giant serpent head came looming from the water. The redhead smiled slightly before holding out her hand slightly and watched as his face held a confused expression before it slowly turned to wonder.

Lavinia, who was holding out her hand, allowed a small ball of red energy to form in the palm of her hand. It shifted slightly, slowly growing in size until it was roughly around the same size as his head. Thatch had no idea what he was seeing, the energy in front of him didn't seem dangerous in the slightest and the amount of concentration that was on her pale face almost made him chuckle. However, when he saw the red energy begin to take shape, first he watched as the ball of energy seemed to take on the form of a person. From the build he presumed it was a man, he was stood with his hands on his hips. However, when the detail began to appear he choked back a laugh at what she had created.

In the hands of the pale redhead there stood a small version of him. The swirling energy almost seemed alive and he was almost tempted to touch the mini version of himself. Lavinia loved the colour of her energy, it wasn't just red. It was a deep red with small swirls of black and even slight flashes of purple and blue, it always made her smile at the comforting colours.

"I can create things out of my own energy. I can leave them as this substance or solidify them into a gem, like so..." her red eyes glowed slightly before he heard the crackling of the figure in front of him. Soon, the swirling mass of energy stopped moving and it took on the form of a deep red crystal. That fell into the palm of her hand. Lavinia felt proud, she always loved doing things like this since she was a creative girl. Not only that, but before she was hidden away, she would create small gems and sell them so that she could afford to live, apparently her gems were incredibly expensive back in the day, she didn't know if they were still as expensive nowadays. Thatch reached a hand forward and touched the small figure of himself, poking slightly at the over emphasised blob of hair on top of the head that made him roll his eyes.

"My hair is not THAT big"

"It might as well be"

"But it's not, girlie"

"It looks so _fabulous _like that though"

"You are just jealous"

"Sure. Because I want to look like I'm trying to contact my alien brethren from space"

Their banter soon ended when a large sea king dove from the water, it's purple scaly skin shone in the midday sun as the salt water dripped from its body. The small beady eyes glared down at the boat below it before a large blob of saliva fell from its slightly opened mouth and landed into the water beside the boat.

"Dammit, another one of those?" Thatch groaned, reaching for his sword. Sea kings were not hard for him to beat, they were just a nuisance to him.

"Probably attracted to your hair"

"Damn, you are cruel girlie"

He swung his sword toward the seaking as it lunged toward the boat, intending to eat it whole. The energy that Thatch let out cut the seaking across the snout, scaring the beast so that it launched back under the water and escaped, probably terrified. However, as one sea king fell, another one rose higher than the previous, taking advantage of the waves so that it could propel itself faster toward it's intended prey. Thatch, however, didn't expect another sea king to arrive so soon after the other. In fact, if he had seen it coming he would have been able to turn quickly and slash at the other one quite easily. However, the waves had knocked him off balance before he could ready himself.

What he didn't expect was for a large, red and somewhat demonic looking hand to materialise out of thin air and grab the sea king by the head, flinging it far away from them and into the ocean beyond before it dissolved into nothing. Thatch looked at Lavinia, she was holding out a hand, her red eyes glowing.

"Girlie...I'll admit that's a useful power you have going on for you" He patted her back and stared sympathetically as she let out a shaky breath.

"I'm not used to using my powers, I haven't used them in a very long time..." She ran her hand through her hair, groaning slightly at how lethargic she felt. Surely after 400 years of sleep she would be awake for at least another 400 years? Nope. Lavinia huffed slightly before turning to face Thatch who had began to continue to row the boat.

"You tired?"

"Nah"

"You sure? I could create arms to row the boat."

Lavinia held back a laugh when she watched his eyes glint. The expression that fell across his face made her bite her lip so that no noise could escape and taunt the shaking man any more.

"Are you telling me...you could have made this journey easier for the both of us?!" His voice boomed, she knew he wasn't angry...well, too angry. He was playing around and she finally allowed the laugh to escape her lips as she watched an evil smirk spread across his face. Lavinia squealed when she felt him land on top of her, his large hands pressed into her sides before he began to tickle her. The boat swayed dangerously on the water, in fact, she was positive that if he moved too much it would have toppled over completely and they would both be completely soaked because of his idiocy.

"S-Stop!" Tears fell from her eyes and she couldn't stop laughing. No matter how much she tried to push him away, she simply couldn't. The fact that he was stronger and she was losing so much energy from laughing just meant he had more of a chance to tickle to girl beneath him. Lavinia couldn't make out what he was shouting down to her, it was hard to understand when he was laughing as well. She managed to decipher "My hair is awesome" before another fit of giggles left her mouth from how obscure the statement was to her.

"Oi, Thatch. What do you think you're doing-yoi?" Lavinia felt the boat tilt slightly near her head and she felt Thatch tense slightly before he quickly shuffled off her, allowing her to catch her breath and look up at the man that had joined them both. Towering above her was a tall, well built man. He looked just as odd as Thatch did, but he seemed to pull it off a lot better. His hair seemed to be merely a tuft of blonde hair, he wore an open purple shirt that not only showed the well defined muscles but also showed a very strange looking tattoo that covered most of it, she briefly thought about how much that would have hurt before she quickly glanced back up at his face, the relaxed, tired expression on his face didn't diminish, even when a smirk graced his features when he noticed the redhead was admiring him.

"Hey, girlie. Staring at Marco, eh?" She heard Thatch chortle elsewhere on the boat, laughing at his own attempt at trying to embarrass her. Without so much as a glance toward her new friend she let a smirk fall on her lips.

"Nah. I was just wondering..." Lavinia waited until she heard a hum come from Thatch, a sign that he wanted her to continue.

"Does anyone else in your crew have the same beehive hair as you do, Thatch?" It happened incredibly fast. She noticed the smirk on Marcos face widen but she didn't have time to dwell on that. She soon felt a large hand grip around her ankle before she felt herself being dragged, lifted and then thrown onto the shoulder of Thatch. Lavinia felt the air from her lungs being forced out from the fact that he had purposely done that quite rough so that he could feel he had gotten her back for her cheeky comment. He heard her gasp slightly when he jumped from the boat and landed on a larger one.

"Could you possibly put me down?" Thatch heard her ask, and when he gently put her down, he watched with amusement when she glanced around at the amount of people and at how large the ship was. He watched as she glanced to the front of the ship, quickly looked at the people on the deck before her eyes fell onto a blur of white and purple. However, Lavinia had no time to avoid the attack and was pushed back into Thatch as the white haired girl in front of her tackled her with a flying hug.

"I've missed you so much! We were looking for you, I had no idea that Thatch had found you..." Luna continued to rant as she held her best friend in a tight embrace, refusing to let her go in fear that she would disappear again. It was only when the taller red haired girl gently placed her chin on the smaller girls head did she finally fall silent.

"Hey" She heard the redhead whisper and a small smile crept onto her face before she let go of her friend.

"Come! Meet my family!" Luna shouted. Throwing her arms into the air with a huge grin on her face and she gestured toward the men and women that were crowding on the deck to watch the scene unfold.

"Your...family?"

Thatch pushed her shoulder slightly, encouraging the nervous woman to step further onto the ship so that she could get used to everyone, and she hesitated slightly before slowly following her friend who twirled around excitedly. He knew that she wasn't good when it came to lots of people, especially not when all of their attention was on her and so he made sure to stay by her side because he was positive she would feel slightly better knowing there was someone beside Luna that she knew.

Luna rushed around, almost throwing people at her for Lavinia to meet and greet. Each greeting ended with a flustered redhead, a quick apology as Thatch would nudge her into them and a quick shuffle away from the pirate as she glared at a chuckling Thatch who made sure to follow her. Eventually, after she met a half naked man called Ace who promptly fell asleep when she was being dragged away, a very big man called Jozu who Lavinia oggled, marvelling at the sight of such a large man. Eventually, she came to another stop in front of another pirate.

"You have probably already met Marco. So here is Marco!" Luna smiled brightly, twirling around the man who looked as tired as when she first met him. She tried not to show that the direct eye contact and casual smirk that he wore did make her feel slightly nervous, but that was soon forgotten when she felt Thatch nudge her shoulder for the umpteenth time. Instead of being pushed forward and into the chest of another pirate, she stepped to the side before his full weight could be placed onto her and he fell forward himself toward the tired looking blonde. However, said blonde also stepped to the side and Lavinia snorted slightly as he crashed into the small barrier that stopped people from falling from the ship.

"That wasn't very nice girlie" Thatch groaned as he rubbed his face

"Ah, neither is your hair but I'll try not to mention that too much from now on" She heard a quite "Oooooh" from Luna and was glad that her white haired friend hadn't changed during the time they were apart. Thatch stood up quickly and Lavinia blinked when his shoulders began to shake. Without thinking, she stepped toward Marco, worried that the brown haired man was formulating a plan. However, what neither of them expected was for Thatch to turn, his eyes sparkling with tears and a huge smile to grace his features before he skulked away, his eyes not once leaving the nervous female until he turned the corner and left.

"Ignore him, he is a little strange – yoi" Came the relaxed voice of Marco. Luna nodded in agreement before grabbing her friends arm once again and dragging her somewhere else on the ship. Eventually, she stopped suddenly before a large chair.

"GURARARARA! Luna, my girl. Is this her?" came a booming, friendly voice. When Lavinia looked up at the looming figure, her mouth fell open.

"Holy crap...you're HUGE!" the exclamation left her lips before she could stop it as she stared upon the large figure of Whitebeard. He stared down at her, something shone in his eyes that she didn't recognise. At her statement, another laugh tore from the lips of the man in front of her. His strange, pointed moustache seemed to jiggle comically as his body shook with laughter. This man seemed so...jolly.

In fact, as she slowly started to get used to talking in front of so many people she began to realise that everyone here was rather cheerful. They greeted her with a smile on their face when they should have no reason to trust her. The man they called 'pops' or as the world called him, Whitebeard, welcomed her onto the ship eagerly and was glad that Luna had found the friend she had been searching for. In fact, they were all so happy that they declared they were going to hold a party to the new arrival (Something that Lavinia was sure she turned bright red at the thought of). It was how she got into the room of her best friend, sat on her bed as she had dresses thrown at her from her friend who was rummaging through her wardrobe.

"Come on Vin! You need to dress up! It's a party being held for you, you need to look amazing!" Her voice was muffled from the wardrobe as another very sparkly dress was thrown in her face. At the moment, she was positive she looked like a crappy attempt at a Christmas tree and when she saw another article of clothing flying toward her face, she slumped onto her back to avoid it.

"So, did you see any you like?" Came a cheerful voice

"I dunno. I don't think I had enough time to see them as they were flying at my face. Maybe we should go over them again?" Lavinia countered, laughing as Luna puffed her cheeks that had turned a slight pink. She then stomped to her door before, with a voice that showed she was not the shy innocent girl people assumed she was, shouted for someone.

"IIIZZOOOOOOOOO!" Her voice made the redhead flinch and within seconds a strange looking woman entered the room, her face was white with makeup and the red lipstick that donned her lips made quite the startling contrast. Her hair was pinned up beautifully and the pink kimono that she wore suited the colouration quite well. In fact, Lavinia was certain that the woman was going for the classic Geisha look.

"Yes, Luna my dear?" Correction. A cross dressing man. The voice was far too deep to belong to a woman, and in fact, once that thought crossed the redheads mind, it became quite clear. Izo was a very pretty man.

"I can't decide what to wear and Vin is being annoying and not helping" Luna pouted to the man who seemed to twirl majestically toward the woman who was laying on the bed and had clearly resigned herself to her fate. When she felt him tug her up gently, she came face to face with a man who was quite clearly in touch with his feminine side. After he studied her for quite some time, he pulled her from the bed, grabbed Luna by the arm and pushed them to the doors of the bathroom.

"Go take a shower girls, I'll have your outfits ready for when you come back and then I'll gladly do your wonderful hair!" Then the door slammed shut.

"See, now a shower is something I can do. Lead the way, cupcake" Lavinia laughed when Luna grimaced at her nickname. She hated the nickname and her best friend KNEW this. It was something a stalker used to call her way back when and Lavinia just found it so damn funny. However, this was completely forgotten when she remembered she had to get ready for a party.

Luna rushed forward, forgetting that her friend behind her had no idea how to get around this ship. After the first few corners, Lavinia stopped in an empty hallway. The floors were brown, the walls were white, there were a few lights on the ceiling...yep, she was lost.

"Shit...this hallway looks exactly the same as the last one..." Lavinia turned around slightly, glancing around the hallway in an attempt to find maybe a slight hint to where her friend had ran off too.

"You lost – yoi?" She turned quickly to see Marco leaning against the wall his arms crossed over his (very muscular, that was something Lavinia never forgot to notice) chest and a lazy smile over his face.

"Is it that obvious?" Lavinia returned the smile nervously. She hadn't had time to talk to the man before her, but she was positive that he was a pro at making people feel incredibly uncomfortable.

Her thoughts soon vanished when she heard a deep chuckle and when she glanced up at the man, he was slowly walking toward the nervous redhead. The fact that she was nervous was not lost on Marco and he didn't know if he should continue to make her more nervous, or simply help her out of this predicament. Upon seeing the fairly attractive blush spread across her cheeks, he made up his mind.

"Just a little – yoi" He chuckled once again, standing in front of her and easily towering her despite the fact that she wore boots with a hefty heel.

"U-Uhm. Which way to the showers?" Marco noticed the redhead was staring at the floor, refusing to look up at the man and this caused him to smirk again. He had heard the rumours from Luna, that she was a smart woman who could easily outwit anyone she was against. He had yet to see those talents, but he could already guess that the stories where she used her womanly wiles to get out of predicaments were probably tall tales. Sure, he was sure that if she had the confidence, she could win over a thousand hearts with her looks, but, he preferred the shy woman in front of him. So, just to get a slight reaction from her, he leaned forward and pointed behind her.

"Behind you-yoi" Lavinia visibly stiffened as his voice was right next to her ear. Now, Lavinia was no virgin, she was no stranger to the attention of men. However, she spent years running from people who pretended to show affection merely to try and capture her for the bounty in which was placed on her head. It came naturally to her to suspect an ulterior motive until she slowly began to remember that everything seemed fine here. No one remembered.

Marco seemed quite surprised when he noticed she relaxed and when she lifted her head up to look into his tired expression, when blue eyes met red, he smirked at the slight blush she still wore. However, she followed his arm and noticed the door she had passed and completely missed.

"Thank you, Marco!" and with a bright smile on her face, she quickly turned away from the smirking pirate and ran through the door, slamming it behind her and covering her heated face. Damn that pirate.


	3. You are Welcome

After a quick shower and a run back to the bedroom, Luna and Lavinia both sat and admired the outfits that Izo has chosen. For Luna it was a simple purple sun dress and gold sandals. Lavinia knew that Izo had chosen that outfit because he wanted to keep up the innocent demeanour of Luna. However, she couldn't quite understand why he had chosen her outfit.

In front of Lavinia was a mid thigh, red dress with lace sleeves. She winced as she noticed the outfit and mentally cheered when she saw that he had not chosen hooker heels to go with such a dress. Luna was dressed and getting her hair gently brushed by Izo who was more than happy to help the two women get ready for the party. The redhead picked up the red dress and stepped behind a screen, removing the white towel around her body and letting it fall to the ground. She let out a sigh when she noticed that her skin wasn't as flawless as she hoped it would have been, her skin was milky white, but silver scars were slashed over her skin. There was a particularly large scar that started from just under her right breast to her left hip and she let her fingers trace over the silver skin gently, she wasn't ashamed of her scars in the slightest, that's why she didn't hide the scar with her previous outfit. It was just the sometimes, the redhead would look down at her own body and realise that it was marred, battle worn and definitely not the body a real lady would ever have. The redhead admired her legs, they were lean, muscular and long, she was proud of them but still traced her fingers over the small scars that were lashed over the skin there. After another sad sigh left her lips, she quickly put on her underwear before slipping the red dress over the top. She had to admit, the dress did make up for the fact that her skin made her feel less than feminine. Lavinia ran her hands over the soft fabric of the dress and smiled slightly, the redhead would never admit that she enjoyed feeling like a woman, not the soldier she had become in the past.

"Are you ready, Vin-vin?" the redhead rolled her eyes at the childish nickname her best friend had given her and she picked up the fluffy towel that she had thrown onto the floor before walking from behind the screen. When she stepped out, Luna stared at her with wide eyes and a proud smile whilst she hit Izo on the arm to get his attention. Lavinia shook her head and chuckled when she saw the expression of shock that Izo wore, despite his eyes facing her, he was still deftly working his fingers through the curls of Luna's' hair, separating them.

"My goodness Vin-vin! You look simply delectable!" Lavinia chuckled a little at how Luna and Izo were acting, especially since she didn't know whose personality had rubbed onto whom. A small smile graced her lips when she glanced down at her friend, she knew she was nothing compared to the white haired innocence of her little Luna. Her hair was tied into a half up and half down style, the hair that was left down was curled slightly at the ends, her pale, smooth complexion worked well with the light purple dress and she knew that her little Luna would be the centre of attention. Something that Lavinia had noticed a while ago was that despite them sharing the same red eyes, the eyes of Luna were lighter, innocent. Lavinia's were darker, and to herself, a lot more menacing...She ran her fingers through her hair, it was dry, finally. One thing that the redhead noticed about her hair when it had been recently washed...it looked wavy, it was fluffy and it looked absolutely ridiculous in her opinion. Luna stood from her chair, a bright smile illuminating her face completely and just as Izo was about to grab Lavinia and lead her to the chair, a loud boom echoed through the room as the door slammed open to reveal a very mischievous looking Thatch and a tired looking Marco. The door swung dangerously on a broken hinge, clearly the men here used too much force for everything.

"Let's get drunk, GIRLIES!" Thatch raised his hands into the air and let out, what Lavinia assumed, a battle cry that was echoed back by the small white haired woman behind her. Luna and Thatch jumped to face each other, huge grins on their face then, without so much as a word to the others in the room, they quickly ran through the door, pushing past a still very tired looking blonde pirate and down the hallway shouting about the several pranks they were going to pull on Ace, a pang of sympathy went out to poor boy.

After glancing at the blonde who had strolled into the bedroom to sit on the bed, she smiled at him, realising that he was probably still here so that she didn't get lost when trying to attend the party they were throwing for her. The redhead turned toward Izo who had quickly grabbed her shoulder and plopped her down onto the seat. He then began to work his fingers through her hair quickly before repeating the process with a large brush. She tried not to shiver when he gently pulled on strands of hair that, for some reason, always made her skin tingle.

"My, your hair is simply luscious, don't you think, Marco?" Izo asked absentmindedly, gently pulling all of the hair behind her, brushing it slightly before twisting it and creating a small bun on her head. After a few seconds, she heard a quite curse come from his lips before he covered his mouth and giggled in apology.

"I forgot the hair bobbles! MARCO! Don't you leave just yet! Keep your hand right there, don't let go. I'll be right back" Izo scurried from the room leaving Marco to hold his hand over the hair of the woman beneath him. He did have to admit, it felt very soft. Lavinia noticed that no matter what the man did, he looked tired, at ease and like he did it every day. She looked at him through the mirror and noticed that he was still wearing his usual outfit. His purple jacket that he left open to show the tattoo, a sign that he was proud of being a pirate in this crew. His blue three quarter lengths with the purple sash, she couldn't see his feet but she was pretty sure his shoes were the same as well. The fact that he hadn't dressed up made her realise that she really had an option with Izo, she could have said no to his hopeful, expectant and pouting gaze...Okay, no...she couldn't.

Lavinia felt the heat from his hand as he made sure to press the hair to her head exactly how Izo had instructed and the silence made her fidget slightly. However, the awkwardness was soon forgotten when a question she had been meaning to ask popped into her head.

"Marco?"

"Hm?" Came the quite response.

"Why are you called a Phoenix?" It was an innocent question. A question that caused Marco to raise an eyebrow slightly. Lavinia noticed this in the mirror in front of her and blushed slightly, feeling a bit stupid for asking. She heard a few of the pirates around the ship talking about someone called 'Marco the Phoenix' and since he was the only Marco on this ship...she sorta just put two and two together.

"I ate a Devil fruit. Logia type, Mythical beast. I can turn into a Phoenix- yoi" The explanation to him was pretty simple. In fact, she should have known this anyway. He was pretty famous, not that he wanted to brag. Being the 1st division commander meant that he was well known as a formidable opponent.

"A fruit turned you into a bird? Isn't that impossible?" Marco watched as confusion flitted across her face, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, it looked cute. "How can a fruit change your molecular structure? Doesn't that require the fruit to get into your blood stream? Even then, it sounds like an incredibly painful experience since it means your very DNA changed! it shouldn't be-" Marco ended her ranting by allowing his hand to turn into the blue feathers of his phoenix form. The redheads expression turned from confusion, to shock, to wonder as she watched the flames dance around over his hand. He then allowed the flames to travel further up his arm and her gaze followed, his hand dropping from her hair and allowing her red locks to cascade down her back as she turned her head to follow. Lavinia didn't care, she stood from her seat and stepped closer to the smirking pirate.

"That is incredible" She whispered to herself, almost raising her hand to touch the flames before she looked up into his eyes with concern "Does it hurt?"

The deep laugh that came from his throat caused the young redhead to once against blush and glance down at the floor. However, she watched as the hand that had not turned into flames gripped her own, carefully and gently. With a confused glance up to his face, he smiled at her, nodding toward their hands again.

"No. My fire doesn't burn, yoi" and to prove his point, the hand that was holding hers turned into the same blue flame that engulfed the other arm. The joy that spread over her face that caused Marco to chuckle once again. She was thrilled, the flames didn't burn at all. They felt warm, pleasingly so and she could imagine he would make a great source of heat during the winter times. All of her confusion about how this could be happening were pushed to the back of her mind as she stared upon the man before her.

"Can you turn into a Phoenix?" Her eyes widened even more when he nodded his head in confirmation. Lavinia was impressed, his power sounded and looked absolutely beautiful, the flames that glistened before her seemed even more appealing since she loved the colour blue. It was a calming colour, a colour that had so much depth. Looking down at the blue flames that sometimes flickered a brief yellow she noticed that her free hand had begun to stroke the flames on the other arm, the warmth that was radiating from the pirate caused the redheaded woman to shuffle slightly closer without realising.

"Cold, yoi?" Amusement danced in his eyes and could be clearly heard in his voice. When he saw her nod he allowed his eyes to shift down to the outfit that was probably picked out by Izo. He had to admit, it was a great choice. It suited her shape, accentuated her every curve in a very attractive way...on the practical side, however, he knew all too well that the women in front of him would end up with a cold of some kind by the end of the night. His eyes continued to drift down to her legs that had small scars littering the skin, he could tell that the way she shifted her legs slightly that she was slightly self conscious about them so he quickly averted his eyes back to her red ones. He slowly allowed the flames to die out, his hand still gently holding the pale hand in front of him and she was pleasantly surprised that he was still pretty warm despite the flames going.

It was at this point that Izo walked back into the room. His mouth opened wide, eyes bulging from their sockets (almost) as he stared at the scene in front of him.

"You brute! Don't ruin the innocence of this woman!" Izo grabbed the shoulders of Marco, quickly pushing him out of the room and slamming the door on his confused face before he turned back toward the dazed redhead left in the room in front of him and he sighed. He had a lot of work to do.

* * *

><p>On the deck Luna and Thatch had already started drinking despite the others telling them to wait for the reason they were throwing this party to arrive. This fell on deaf ears as soon as Thatch issued a challenge against the white haired female. After several drinks and more than enough banter, Luna and Thatch began to laugh at everything that moved. Pirates that walked by carrying crates of alcohol and others that were taking food to the kitchens were all victim to their mocking.<p>

"Thaaaatch. You are drunk!" Luna giggled at the larger man who gave her an incredulous look.

"Nooope. You are!" Luna gasped in fake hurt before she leaned forward and slapped his hair, watching it bounce a few times before she noticed the glare he gave her.

"Don't touch my hair. It's too fabulous" and they both broke into a fit of laughter. It was at this point that Marco walked onto the deck and spotted the two who were having some difficulty breathing and had started to choke from the amount of laughter. He strolled over, glancing around at his brothers who were all very busy and awkwardly side stepping the two drunkards in the corner. When he was a few feet away from the pair Luna stared at him before glancing behind him with a question at the tip of her tongue.

"She is with Izo, yoi" Marco sat down next to the two trouble makers, he noticed that Aces hat was at the table as well and could only imagine what the two of them did to him.

"Aeee, she is going to get lost" Luna sighed and shook her head "It was something we always joked about at home. My house was about half an hour away from her own and she would complain that every corner she took she would always go the wrong way" A smirk graced her features. Luna was happy, glad that she had finally found her friend, happy that she could finally let Lavinia enjoy a happy life and give her an escape from her past.

"Oiii! You guys drank everything!" The voice belonged to a very bored looking Ace who strolled toward the table, scratching the back of his head lazily.

"You shouldn't have taken so long!" Luna scolded the young man who simply ignored the woman in favour of sitting on the floor beside the table and promptly falling asleep after he grabbed his hat and placed it over his face. She groaned at his antics, not entirely pleased that he could fall asleep anywhere and at any time but she wouldn't change him. Ace was Ace after all.

"Girlie has arrived!" Thatches'' voice boomed and he swayed a little on his seat, the effect of the alcohol making him extremely excitable.

"Viiiiiinnnn!" Shouted Luna, waving her arm enthusiastically at the redhead earning a strange look from the other pirates on the deck, however, when glancing at the direction she was waving they suddenly began to rush around. Lavinia turned around, thanking Izo who had taken her to the deck before awkwardly shuffling toward her best friend trying to avoid eye contact with the pirates around her. Eventually, when she sat down next to Marco a loud booming voice echoed across the ship causing everyone else to fall into silence, not out of fear, but respect.

"GURARARA! Right then, children, this is a party dedicated to Luna finding her girlie! Don't hold back! Have fun!" However, the looming man turned to face Lavinia who was watching the man curiously. "It's good to finally meet you and It's a relief to see Luna so happy. You are welcome in this family" As soon as he finished speaking, cheering could be heard from the pirates around the deck but Lavinia didn't pay any notice to them, her eyes widened at the words of the friendly man who, with a broad smile, turned to grab a drink and started the party.

It was during that party that Lavinia noticed that she enjoyed being around people, especially people who she knew wouldn't hurt her. The music had started from a few pirates in the far end and the atmosphere suddenly turned into that of a real party. There was laughing, games and even a few of the pirates that had yet to be introduced waltzed over to the two women, some merely shaking hands and the others offering them to dance which Luna always accepted with a happy grin. The music created a fast beat for the dancing pirates to follow, but due to the fact that more than half of them were incredibly drunk, none of them could follow it. It created a great source of amusement for Lavinia who watched the pirates trip over their own feet, tumbling into each other before continuing to dance. Eventually, as the day started to turn into night and the pirates that enjoyed their party began to feel so drunk they could no longer dance any longer, the party began to die down as people eventually passed out where they were stood. It was a strange sight, to say the least, the deck of the ship completely littered with groaning bodies as they could no longer move, the odd snore could be heard but not placed.

At the far end of the ship, Lavinia sat on the front of the ship, she had long since stopped marvelling the fact that the front of the ship looked like a Whale and simply stared out into sea, enjoying the night breeze and how it would gently push the waves to continue their dance, rocking the boat ever so gently. A few stars began to twinkle through the thin haze of clouds that could still be seen floating in the sky, each star a different colour and a different shade from the one that was next to it.

"Lavinia?" The redhead turned to face her best friend who had come to join her, sat down and stared off out into the sea with her. Lavinia began to fiddle with the clips that held up her hair, wincing slightly when she couldn't pull them out without yanking on a clump of hair. Luna laughed, sat behind the frustrated redhead and began to gently take the pins from her hair. Eventually, Luna continued.

"Will you accept Whitebeards offer and join the family?" Her voice was scared, she didn't want to lose her friend again but she knew she couldn't stop her if she truly didn't feel comfortable here. Eventually, she pulled the last pin from her friends hair and it fell behind her back in crimson waves.

"Luna, this is your family, not mine. I don't want to intrude" It hurt Lavinia to say this, but she felt that it was the right thing to say. The only reason these people were accepting her so quickly was because of her and she didn't want to take advantage of that. However, when she turned to face her best friend she saw anger shining in those innocent red eyes.

"Stop that! You are like a sister to me! I haven't seen you in so long, after the war ended I thought you had died...but then, but then...I can't remember what happened after but these people found me. They accepted me and they will accept you, they don't judge people on what they did, they judge people on what they will do and I am bloody well positive we will do amazing things" Tears left her little white haired friends eyes, dripping down her cheeks before blowing away in the wind. It always surprised her how innocent the girl in front of her could be, they had turned themselves into war machines and yet she managed to keep her heart and that was probably the reason why so many people loved her. With a small smile, Lavinia reached forward and placed a kiss on her friends forehead. Luna was crying, it was something that the redhead had always promised not to cause, it broke her heart every time. After a few sobs and a couple of sniffles, Her white haired friend slumped forward, head resting on the confused redheads shoulder but before the woman could shake her friend to see if she was alright, she heard a light snore.

"Honestly, woman. You are an odd ball" A chuckle left her mouth before she gently embraced her little Luna, carefully running her hands through her White hair to de-tangle it before she softly began to sing. The song was a favourite, Luna loved the song because her mother would sing it to her after she had a particularly bad dream and Lavinia enjoyed the lyrics, they were beautiful and created imagery that always inspired an adventure deep inside of her.

"_Moon river, Wider than a mile_  
><em>I'm crossing you in style someday.<em>  
><em>Old dream maker, you heart-breaker<em>  
><em>Wherever your going, I'm going your way.<em>

_Two drifters, off to see the world_  
><em>There's such a lot of world to see.<em>  
><em>We're after the same rainbows end, waiting around the bend<em>  
><em>My huckleberry friend...Moon River and me<em>"

Eventually, the lyrics began to stop leaving her lips as her eyes began to close. The sound of the waves began to lull the young woman to sleep, gently embracing her best friend. She knew she shouldn't be sleeping out in the cold, especially not when both of them were wearing dresses that couldn't exactly keep them warm. However, she couldn't stop her thoughts from escaping her exhausted mind and she closed her eyes, finally drifting off into sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Rubek - I apologise for any spelling mistakes or silly little grammatical errors. I will be checking over this once I feel like the initial story has been finished.<strong>

**As a little note, I do try to focus on the importance of self growth and the love people share with friends and family since I find that to be a good foundation to go off of. Also, I don't think I'll be rushing the whole Marco and OC thing because it doesn't seem realistic if they said "I love you" after a single chapter. At the moment I suppose it's just a slight attraction...Gah! I'm no good at these romance things.**

**Review if you so desire, minions.**


	4. Betrayal

_There was so much red, was it blood? She could feel it suffocating her as it dripped down her throat and burned every inch of skin that it touched. It felt like acid and she knew if she could have looked down she would have seen her skin peeling off and falling into the red abyss. It began to move, the acid embrace began to slowly inch up her face before it seeped into her eyes, the feeling of tiny claws lashing at them caused tears to fall. So much red. So much pain.  
>"You can't run anymore, FREAK! We are taking your life, your tyranny is ending right now!" An angry voice echoed around her and she somehow managed to see through the thick, burning mass covering her eyes to glance upon a figure before her. It was a man, most of his features were blurred and she couldn't tell if that was because the substance was slowly making her blind or if the tears that she knew were dripping down her face began to obscure her vision. The world around her was tainted red, black shadows would flit across her vision before vanishing. She tried so hard to see who was threatening her, but her eyes wouldn't focus. Movement failed her and despite her mind screaming for her to move, she couldn't form words around the acidic substance that was slowly beginning to block her airways, she was gasping now but the more gasped the more the burning red liquid would pour down her throat and burn her from the inside and cause more tears to steam down her face from the pain. Through the haze, she saw the man point at her head with what she could barely make out as a gun. It was then that she could see the sickening smirk grace his features, finally happy to capture the person he had been hunting for so long. <em>

_However, before he could end her life, a bright light flashed above them both. Illuminating the mess of red, dissolving the thick substance that had begun to suffocate her, paralyse her. Relief washed over her as she felt the soothing cold touch from this light, but that soon ended. Her red eyes widened as she took in the face of the man in front of her. His round head, the receding hair line, the crazed look in his pale blue eyes, the slight twitch on his snarling mouth as he glared at the woman in front of him, the woman he wanted to kill. _

"_Daddy?"_

_And he pressed the trigger._

* * *

><p>Lavinia woke with a start and sat up straight from her position on the floor, eyes wide and panicking as she quickly looked around for danger. The first thing she noticed was that she was on a boat and that she was exactly where she had fallen asleep the night before. Glancing back toward the deck Lavinia noticed that a lot of the drunken pirates were only just beginning to wake up themselves, hauling themselves up and gripping their throbbing heads. She was soon forced back down by someone pushing against her stomach and when she glanced down she noticed her white haired friendstill asleep on her lap with a very strange looking Ace almost completely covering the smaller woman like a duvet. Luna was curled up, head resting on the redheads stomach whilst the rest of her body was next to her legs. It almost looked like she had dragged Ace on top of her for warmth, his stomach rested over her hip and his face was pressed against the redheads knee. Surely that wasn't the most comfortable position the man could have slept in?<p>

"What the hell?" She muttered to herself before attempting to pull her legs free from underneath the combined weight. Unfortunately, the two young adults that were currently sleeping on her had been there for a long time and her legs were still sleeping, all feeling completely gone. She turned her weary eyes up when she heard an amused chuckle from beside her.

"Thatch! Help me!" The redhead dramatically fell backwards, holding her hands in the air and reaching toward him.

"Hmmmmm, that depends, girlie." The smug smile he wore on his face did nothing to ease the discomfort she was feeling. In fact, she quickly put her arms down above her head and raised an eyebrow at the man looming above her.

"On what?" she knew she sounded sceptical.

"Go shopping on the next island in my place. I'm too tired and it's nothing majorly important. It's just-" He gave the redhead a side glance, the smirk growing on his face as he opened his mouth to say the one word he knew would get her willing "Books"

"What kind of books?" She enquired, lifting herself onto her arms and watching the man in front of her curiously. Thatch had begun to fiddle with his fingers nonchalantly, acting as though he hadn't heard from a particular white haired lady that the young woman currently being squashed by two people really loved learning new things.

"Oh, you know...medical books, Books on the Islands we are going to be visiting, maps...a general restock since most of our books were burnt during the fight at Marine ford" It was this that really peaked her curiosity.

"Huh? Was it a big fight?" When the question was asked, Thatch swiftly began to tell the story to the wide eyed redhead before him. The discomfort in her leg eventually disappeared when she discovered exactly what had happened during her slumber in the crystal when Luna had been around. She had apparently saved this crew from an untimely end...It seemed almost impossible to believe. She had saved Ace, Whitebeard and the ship from fatal damage. What caught the redheads attention was not the fact that Luna had almost died, she wasn't dead and that was all that mattered. What caught her attention was the fact that everyone, including the Marines, had no idea _how_ she stopped the deaths. Thatch explained how red energy surrounded her as she threw herself in the way of the attacks, it protected her of course, but she always seemed to be in a daze. How did Luna know when it was going to happen when much stronger fighters couldn't even detect the attacks and they were so close by? No one on the ship questioned it, they brought it down to sheer luck and the fact that Luna never spoke about it didn't seem to ring any bells for them, in fact, she even said she had no memory of ever stopping the attacks but Lavinia knew there was more to this whole thing.

"She means so much to us...she even saved my life! I should have died...I should have" His voice broke and the sentence barely ended in a whisper, coarse from holding back the wave of emotion that was surely almost causing him to choke on his words. After a deep breath, he reached forward and pulled the dazed redhead from the embrace of the two young adults, hauling her over the edge and holding her in place as she began to right herself since if he let her go, she would fall due to the fact she still had no feeling in her legs. However, she was still staring forward with a blank expression as shock spread through her body.

"Keep her safe, Lavinia" As Thatch walked away she began to go over the story in her head, how she had managed to stop the deaths of three people that were otherwise unexpected, deaths that no one else could see coming. Suspicion rang through her very being as the one clue that pieced the information together echoed in her mind. _She didn't remember a thing of any of the incidents. _Nothing that Lavinia could think would bring about Amnesia in Luna, that wasn't her power, she had ridiculous strength... But, there was one thing. There is no way Luna would have used _that..._.But when Lavinia thought about it, it made sense. She loved these people like they were family and using something as dangerous as _that_ would mean nothing when faced with the possibility of losing someone she loved.

The redhead clenched her fist in anger at her friends actions and the anger that gleamed in her eyes didn't diminish when she heard her friend groan as she stepped toward her.

"Morni-...Lavinia? What's wrong?" Luna stared, wide eyed at the glaring face of her best friend. However, instead of responding to her white haired friend, she merely turned away and began a fast pace toward the door that took her inside the ship. Maybe a shower would clear her head, stop the anger from boiling over the surface. Lavinia didn't want to cause a scene, not in front of innocent people who were so hospitable toward her, they didn't deserve that. The door slammed shut, blocking out the confused shouts from Luna who continued to call the redheads name.

After a shower, Lavinia had successfully avoided her best friend for the next 4 hours. The pirates were docking at an Island for supplies, she couldn't be bothered to pay attention to name of the Island, only hearing a few words such as 'Marine' that didn't exactly mean anything to the woman who spent the last 400 years sleeping in a strange crystal. Thatch and Ace had confronted her cold behaviour toward Luna quite a few times leading to snappy responses from the redhead and for the two men to shake their heads in disappointment, she didn't need someone who didn't _know anything_ to be prying. Of course, just as Lavinia had expected, once her relationship with Luna had becoming jeopardised the rest of the crew began to blank her, it's not that she didn't mind because the redhead didn't have a close relationship with anyone on the ship. In fact, this confirmed her view that the people here were for Luna, not for her. Why should she over stay her welcome? During the wait to arrive at the island, Lavinia had put on the clothes that she had initially woken up in, Izo had been kind enough to clean them for her, although she doubted he would have done that had he known that she was hurting Luna. Or maybe that was just her thinking petty thoughts? She couldn't be sure.

It was when Lavinia could see the island in the distance, a patch of luscious green seemingly floating on the endless blue ocean did Marco finally approach the distant woman.

"Something wrong, yoi?" His voice was calm, collected, but she knew he was on full alert and probably ready to place the blame on her shoulders (Again, petty thinking, not everyone here is bad). Lavinia glanced at the man, a smart, cold remark on the tip of her tongue...but she couldn't say it. She hurt more than the others knew and the shock of knowing that her friend had used _that_ had brought more stress on than she could handle. Turning her red eyes away from the man who casually leaned against the wall beside her, arms folded and eyes closed. She stared down at the wooden planks of the ship.

"Marco..." Her voice was low and tight, holding back the emotion that was threatening her control over everything she had tried so hard to keep under wraps. She took his silence as a confirmation to continue with what she was going to say, even if she did continue with slight hesitancy.

"If someone you loved, someone you hadn't seen in a long time but loved so very much, used something that could kill them to save people that you barely knew...how would you react?" Lavinia had stopped staring at her hands, glancing up at the stoic man in front of her who was watching her face intently. When she had finished her question, something that could be translated as complete understanding flitted through his blue eyes causing her to look away and out at the quickly approaching island.

"Hmm, that is a hard one, yoi" Marco's smooth voice began "I'd be angry, upset and very worried for their well being, yoi. However, I'd be able to sympathise with their decision. They spent years away from me, they became their own person and made bonds that they didn't want to lose, yoi. They defended them knowing that the decision could be the end of their life, I would have done the same if it were my family who needed protection, yoi" Lavinia could feel her eyes beginning to water and she quickly raised a hand to wipe them away. She could also feel the warmth radiating from Marco as he stepped forward to comfort the woman that he knew all too well was distraught, he placed a hand on her shoulder and carefully turned her to face him before he continued.

"Would have you done the same if it was Luna in danger?" That statement, that single sentence that fell from his tongue caused her world to shatter. The walls that she carefully placed around her in order to stop people from being able to really see her, to see her weaknesses, they began to crumble. Marco was _right._ Lavinia placed her hand over her mouth to hide the sobs that managed to escape her mouth and the tears that fell from her eyes dripped down and she couldn't stop them. She knew she looked pathetic, she had no real reason to cry and when Marco simply removed his hand and walked away, she knew she was the one in wrong when it came to her decision. Luna had protected the people that she loved and Lavinia had no right to dictate how she could protect that bond...but surely, she was allowed to be scared, right? The crying woman finally felt the boat come to a stop and before the pirates could ready the ship and allow everyone to disembark, she jumped into the shallow water surrounding the boat, the cold water sending shocks through the thin material of her boots before she ran onto the island, ignoring the shouts from the others on the boat. Lavinia had to be alone, she had to think about her actions, but she couldn't shake the feeling of betrayal that her friend would do something so heartless.

* * *

><p>Luna was pacing, running her shaking hands through her hair and tears of panic were threatening to fall. It had been 3 hours since Lavinia had ran away from the pirates, many of the others had already mentioned the idea of leaving her best friend. She couldn't bear the thought...leaving her friend on an unknown island? But it was beginning to get dark and she knew that if the Whitebeard pirates stayed on this island for too long they would catch the attention of the Marines and probably other pirates looking to take the head of pops.<p>

"Come on, Luna. She is a grown woman, she can handle herself" One of the pirates said to her. His name was Ben and he had a childish crush on the white haired woman, he would take her side over anyone's, even if she was quite clearly in the wrong.

"Yeah, let's just leave. You have us. We are your family now." Another pirate spoke up, this time it was a female called Reina who had a crush on Ben. It was your classic love triangle that Luna really did not have the patience for, she could already imagine the look that Lavinia would give her if she told her. The thought brought another pang of worry and more importantly, an idea.

Luna pushed by the crowding pirates and ran into her room, slamming the wooden door behind her. She practically dived under her bed and clawed at a large, brown box that she had placed under there and once she had a decent grip on it, she pulled it out, the wood from the box scraping noisily against the floor. With a faint click, she opened the lid and peered inside. Luna had some 'treasures' from the islands she had visited, sea shells, precious gems, a few wanted posters of the crew members that she would consider her best friends and below that there was a black box that seemed to emit a very malicious aura.

With a heavy heart, she plucked the box out and removed the lid grimacing as the memories of the pain she went through to use this flooded back. In her hand was a simple necklace, deep red and on a golden chain. The chain and pendant itself was connected by a golden claw, for someone who didn't know what this necklace was it would be considered a beautiful and very expensive piece of jewellery, but Luna and especially Lavinia knew better. This couldn't get in the hands of anyone other than them. Before she could hide the object her bedroom door slammed open and in tumbled Thatch and Ace swiftly followed by calm Marco who was probably the one who had pushed them in anyway.

"Uh. H-hey Luna! We were just checking how you were" Ace rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before his eyes caught the vibrant gleam of the red pendant. Leaning toward the shining red pendant she held carefully in her hands Ace reached forward to touch the necklace, mesmerised by the beauty that such a simple piece of jewellery held. However, before he could touch it, Luna pulled the pendant close to her heart.

"Don't touch it!" It came out as a scream, shocking the three men and she smiled sympathetically at them. "It's not mine..."

"Luna...I think we deserve the truth, don't you, yoi?" Marco watched her with steely eyes. Everything that Lavinia had said ringing through his head and when he saw the white haired woman in front of him close her eyes tightly and sigh, he knew that she was telling the truth. Every emotion that the redhead had shown before him was real and he felt a pang of regret for not believing, for leaving her alone when all she needed was something, someone to take her mind from the horrible thoughts her mind was swimming in.

"It's not mine. It's Lavinia's." At this statement, Ace let out a snort and was ready to make a snide comment about the redhead but was quickly shut up when Luna gave him a pointed stare. "Don't hate her, she has done nothing but care about me" Holding up the necklace so that the light could dance across and through the red pendant.

"It's called 'The Demons Tear'. It gives Lavinia the power of premonition and ultimate control over the powers that she wields...she lost it during the war that we fou-"

"You fought in a war?" Thatch interrupted, shock evident in his eyes before Ace and Marco hushed him silent. It was a break through, Luna had been with them for over three years and not once did she mention her past or why she was so scared to settle down. She took a deep breath and continued

"Yes, Thatch. Lavinia and I are ex soldiers, we fought in a war that should have brought peace...but it didn't exactly work out that way..." She had begun to shake, the memories of being chased and hunted by the people that she thought she could trust crashed back.

"What about the pendant, yoi?" Marco, ever the wise man, noticed her on the verge of a breakdown and changed the topic to something he assumed was easier to talk about.

"Ah, Yes. She lost it during that war and before we lost each other, I had found it. For ages I couldn't use it, I didn't have the power to control the energy that it gives to the user. However, I figured it out eventually." Marco and Thatch nodded in understanding but Ace, who had decided that sitting on the bed to listen to the story was a better option, glanced around confused.

"And? What happened?" He sat forward, ignoring the other two men who rolled their eyes at how dense he could be.

"And I saved this crew. I saved Thatch, I saved Whitebeard, I saved the ship...I saved you, Ace. I saw the deaths of every single one of you and I had the power to stop it, so I did" Luna placed the glowing crystal back into its box, closing the lid before looking back toward the three men.

"What's so bad about that?" This question caused Luna to sigh before turning to face Ace, staring him in the eye so that he would believe the next thing that she said.

"It's not my energy, Ace. It's not my power to control. Every time I used that pendant it would eat at my very life force, it was slowly killing me" She rubbed her hand over her eyes before brushing her long hair from her face, a pained expression flitting across her features as she remembered the burning, the paralysing and most of all, the sheer _distrust _that she saw in her friends eyes. She didn't want the blame to be placed on Lavinia, it was never her fault, Luna knew what the powers would do to her and yet she still chose to risk that.

"What's worse is that I completely betrayed her trust. I broke into my best friends power whilst she wasn't aware and it almost killed me" Tears fell from her eyes and her voice finally broke, staring down at the box in her hands "Can you imagine how she must have felt?! Her own power had almost killed the one person in this whole stupid world that she thought she could rely on!" and without so much as a glance at the expressions of the men around her, she gripped the box tighter in her hand before running out of her room with one thought in her scattered brain.

_I have to find Lavinia._

* * *

><p><strong><em>Rubek - I know it's taking a while to get into the actual plot, but I assure you it's slowly getting there! I'm trying to build a setting for everything (If that makes sense) and I certainly don't want Marco to choose Lavinia over his family at the beginning so I did have to make him somewhat cold toward her. <em>**

**_There will be fighting in the next chapter (hurray!) Leave a review if you so desire!_**


	5. Do you value your life?

"Are you awake?"

"No..."

Lavinia heard a sigh leave the lips of the man that stood in front of her. She was currently tied to chair, the rough ropes biting into the delicate skin of her wrists and ankles. She had been awake for the past 15 minutes but was too busy trying to find out how she could get out of this situation that she couldn't be bothered to begin the ranting and "Here is my ultimate plan" evil story telling that her gut was telling her would ensue. The redhead carefully opened a single eye slightly, she knew she was being a bit silly, the man already knew she was awake but getting hid around the head with a blunt object doesn't exactly make you act normal...especially when you have a throbbing headache that makes daylight sting. She could barely remember how she had ran into the village, her tears had finally stopped and she began to really think about her actions. From then on, she couldn't remember anything aside a sharp pain to her temple where she assumed the man before her had hit her hard.

"I don't want to hurt you, I just need you to answer a few questions" When she opened her eyes completely and stared at the man before her, his voice was soothing. Or rather, it was trying to soothe a girl that wasn't falling for the trap in the slightest. The man in front of her had long blonde hair that he flicked behind his shoulder as he kneeled in front of the glaring woman. When she looked into his purple eyes she had a feeling that he probably expected his looks to get him far in life. He wore a simple vest that had stains that looked a lot like blood littering the sleeves. In fact, the man in front of her looked like he had just come from a ballroom dance and massacred everyone that had attended. When he placed a gentle hand upon her knee she finally responded.

"Yeah, too late for that you idiot. You knocked me out, remember?" Lavinia's voice was full of venom as she hissed at the man in front of her. He lunged forward, gripping the hair at the base of her neck and pulling her face so that it was closer to his, his eyes glaring holes into her own. It did hurt, the hair around that part of everyone's neck was stupidly sensitive and she couldn't help a wince of pain that crossed her face probably making him feel incredibly satisfied. She could feel his fist tighten around the poor strands of hair.

"Didn't your parents ever teach you respect?" He was close, very close. In fact, it made her incredibly nervous since she could feel his breath fan over her face. The redhead waited, hoping that after he had calmed down he would simple back away and leave her precious personal space. That reality came crashing down when she saw him purple eyes gaze at her pink lips and a dazed look to cross his purple eyes. Without so much as a second thought, she flung her head forward, slamming her now probably bruised head on his nose and felt a smug smile of her own cross her face at the sickening crunch that she heard AND felt.

"You stupid WHORE!" He gripped his nose, blood dripping between his fingers and trailing down his wrist before he stood back up, stumbling slightly and fumbling for a large knife that was placed close by on a table full of other dangerous looking instruments. It was at that point that Lavinia realised that she was going to be tortured either for fun or information, but considering his previous statement she guessed it was the latter. The man raised the knife high into the air as he walked toward the girl, he allowed the hand he pressed against his broken nose to drop away and that revealed a completely different face. His nose was crooked and the blood was still slowly dripping from his nostrils and leaking over his mouth, what made her grimace more was the fact that as his own blood trailed over his shaking lips, his tongue slipped from his mouth and licked at the red liquid. The redhead shuddered slightly at the gross sight before she concentrated on the knife that he held high in his other hand. Red energy began to form behind the man who let out a scream of anger as he swung the knife down toward her hand, intending to chop of a finger or two...probably the whole thing because that knife was freaking huge.

However, before the knife could hit the red energy formed into a large, clawed hand and snatched the knife from his hand and brought the hilt of the knife up, hitting him on the nose once again with enough force to knock him out. Lavinia concentrated, moving the clawed hand behind her to begin to chop at the ropes that were binding her to the seat and with careful thoughts. The redhead did have control over her powers but found it difficult to channel the energy through thoughts alone, especially since her thoughts began to wander. Using her hands to channel the energy was simple, she would ensure that the energy would copy what he hands were doing and therefore she wouldn't end up with a knife in the wall due to some unknown hidden thought.

As soon as her hands were free she grabbed the knife with her own hands and cancelled the claw that disappeared into nothing. Lavinia carefully pressed the sharp edge of the blade against the rope and flicked her wrist up, happy that it was easy to break...although that meant this man kept his knives creepily sharp. She eventually stood up from the chair and stretched slightly, feeling the muscles in her body pop at the relief of finally being able to move. She must have been unconscious for a long time. A quick once over of the unconscious man on the floor made her grimace slightly, she felt as though she had acted too rash, knocked him unconscious before she could find out exactly what he wanted.

"How did you get out, cutie?"

Lavinia turned quickly toward the voice and stood in the doorway was a very tall, very intimidating looking man. He had short purple hair and his single, yellow eye stared at her calmly as if she didn't pose a threat to him in the slightest. His other eye had a large scar over it and she noticed that the scar was pretty deep meaning that he had probably lost all vision in that eye. His skin was tanned but covered in dark scars that crisscrossed over his torso and arms, she was sure if she wasn't in danger she would have marvelled at the sight of his huge muscles. Where she came from men didn't really enjoy building muscle and she would remember Luna and herself always complaining about that...After all, they were only 20 at the time. They could get away with that.

"Well, that's a long story. He started screaming and apologising, freed me from those incredibly uncomfortable ropes and then shouted 'All hail Satan' before whacking himself in the face" Lavinia smirked at the man who raised an eyebrow at her, clearly not believing the story, not that she had expected him to either.

"Oh, is that so?" a dark chuckle escaped his lips when she nodded slightly, a smirk of her own gracing her features but that motion alone caused the bruise on her temple to throb painfully. She could feel a slight tightness around that area and she presumed that the force of the blow that knocked her out and probably broken the skin, not that she was surprised either.

"Sorry about the rude introduction. We only want to know about your Whitebeard friends...They are famous people. I want their heads" He raised his hands slightly and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly before stepping toward the woman. Lavinia shrugged her own shoulders and crossed her arms, holding her head up high and ,despite the height difference, effectively staring down upon him. The man was a bounty hunter, a corrupt one in her eyes. He tortured people for information on the pirates, probably expecting information on weaknesses of the stronger members of the crew. She spun around slowly, finally noticing the numerous wanted posters that decorated the walls. Lavinia was quick to spot the ones from the Whitebeard crew, Marco, Thatch, Ace, Edward Newgate, Luna...Wait what? She stepped closer to the poster in front of her and surely enough, her little white haired friend stared back at her, the little devil had a wanted poster. This made things a lot different in her eyes. Despite the little tiff that they had on the ship, the redhead wasn't the type of woman to betray her friends.

"Oh. I guessed that much but you see...it's not going to be so easy..." Lavinia ran her hand through her hair, allowing her red energy to begin to form and latch itself onto her body. The redhead slowly turned back around to face the man, she could see that the man was surprised, he probably had no idea that she had any powers. Eventually, when the energy covered her body she let it solidify and turn into the red crystal. It was something she was proud to admit, her crystal was near unbreakable and for her, it was the ultimate defence...that and the fact that it looked incredibly intimidating just made her always loved drawing out this moment.

"A devil fruit user? How curious" He began a careful stroll around the woman, admiring the crystal that had covered her body like a suit of armour. He even lifted a scarred hand to his face slightly, tapping his chin as if contemplating something.

"Don't be ridiculous...I'm much older than those fruits..." Her voice darkened considerably, the red energy formed around her glistening red hand. Lavinia stared at the energy fondly for a few seconds, admiring how the smoky appearance seemed to unthreatening to those not familiar with its strength. She then swung her fist forward, not touching the man herself, but throwing the concentrated energy at the man who watched with wide eyes before the energy came into contact with his chest, knocking him back against the wall and with a loud crash, through the wall and into the street behind. The dust and dirt that was flung into the air created a decent enough cover for the redhead, but she still didn't want her identity being discovered by anyone who might take advantage of that. As she stepped out of the large, broken wall she once again allowed her energy to form around her head before solidifying and effectively creating a helmet of deep red crystal that she always wore when she was out in the sun. The redhead was quite prone to migraines and the deep, dark colour of red seemed to help prevent them from forming. This also allowed her to hide her face from whoever managed to get pictures of the people on the WANTED posters, she didn't need her face getting thrown around on a sheet of paper or a bounty over her head. The redhead glanced around at the village before her and noticed that it was dark, probably almost midnight. She kicked a few stones away from her with her crystal covered boots in slight annoyance, she had been knocked out for quite some time. Around the redhead the few people of the village that were out during the late hour were screaming and running for cover, others were begging for the Marines to save them because Pirates had found the Island. Lavinia shrugged her shoulders before turning back to the man who had finally stood up, his shirt was ripped badly but the skin underneath hadn't been damaged which caused her to tilt her head slightly in confusion. Her attention was quickly drawn to the tattoo that he had on his chest, it was a red circle with what appeared to be a tear drop in the centre, it was a crude drawing but Lavinia couldn't help but think that it was incredibly familiar.

"My my...what do we have here..." To the man her voice sounded muffled by the strange crystal that she had covered herself in. He had to repress a slight shudder at how creepy this whole thing was and as she took another step closer, he narrowed his eyes at the freak before him.

"Who the HELL are you!?" Now that the villagers had disappeared, his voice bounced down the empty street and echoed loudly. However, Lavinia didn't respond. Why should she? He had kidnapped her, almost killed her, why should she dignify the man with an answer? She watched as he grit his teeth angrily at the silence that followed clearly not used to being treated with such little respect. He charged forward, clenched his fist and threw that fist at the crystal covered chest of the woman who didn't even flinch.

A loud crack echoed through the silence and Lavinia sighed, shaking her head slightly before pushing against the forehead of the paralysed man with a single finger. He fell to the floor clutching his hand, the fingers mangled and bloodied from a few of the bones protruding through the thin skin of his hand. The pained cry that tore from his throat almost made her feel sorry for the man in front of her and she watched as he curled into a ball, weeping and cradling the now severely broken hand. However, what she didn't understand was how her powers had no effect on the crippled man before. Her attacks had never NOT damaged someone in the past, this made her even more interested in the man before her.

Lavinia stepped toward the man, heels clacking gently against the stone floor before she loomed over him, bending over so that she could stare into his eyes, even though he couldn't see hers.

"What's your name?" The man stared up at the woman and forgot every word he had ever learnt out of fear, he quivered and held his broken hand in front of his face for protection. Lavinia knew that she was probably rather intimidating and with a quick sigh, she allowed the crystal around her head to dissolve into nothing before she sat down beside the man, nodding toward him so that he would answer the question.

"R-Robert Smee..." Lavinia nodded, showing that she was listening to the man before she turned to him with a smile.

"I'm Lavinia Grant" Robert stared at the young woman who continued to smile at his shocked expression, his eyes were wide and he was also pretty sure that his mouth was open as well. He watched as she slightly raised her eyebrow at his expression before she gave a pointed stare at his tattoo.

"What's that about? I think I've seen it before..." Robert nodded, all fear suddenly leaving his eyes and he clenched his good fist to his heart, closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"It is a sign of my faith to the Blood Witch, the goddess that destroyed the horrible government that plagued the world! She killed friend and foe alike to bring the ultimate peace and freedom!" At the end of the statement, Robert had begun to shout and that was a clear sign that he was loyal to his belief and certainly not afraid for others to hear it. When he heard the redhead next to him snort, he quickly stood up with a glare in his eyes, offended that she would find his belief amusing.

"Yeah, well, what is with your stupid tattoo? It's just a circle! Ran out of money before you could get it finished?!" He laughed weakly at his poor attempt at a joke and Lavinia rolled her red eyes at his behaviour. In truth, Lavinia couldn't remember how she got the tattoo or what is symbolised but the colour did seem to suit her since it was the same red shade as her powers.

However, Lavinia stood up holding her hands up in defence and even allowing her crystal armour to leave her body in a swirling red mist before it eventually dissolved into nothing around them both.

"Relax. I'm not mocking your faith"

Before the man could respond several loud voices were heard from the tree line behind them. As the Lavinia and Robert watched, people began to struggle through the branches, some of them groaning and complaining about how thick the branches were. A slight chuckle left the redhead when she saw a particularly large branch being pulled back by someone passing by and was let go, it swung back and hit the man who was walking behind them directly in the face. Her chuckle stopped short when she noticed who exactly the man was. How could she have not recognised the man sooner? His white suit, large beehive hair...which also lead her to the conclusion that the rest of the people were the Whitebeard pirates. Almost as if to confirm that even more she saw a blue phoenix fly above the trees and circle above her head like a beacon, if she wasn't so nervous about meeting the people she had just run away from she would have been staring at the beauty of the large Phoenix above her. The blue flames moved mesmerizingly, they were a cross between the gentle flapping of the feathers of a bird and the waving flames.

"White beard pirates! First division commander Marco the Phoenix!" Robert hissed, stepping forward with his good fist held in front of him as he watched the phoenix descend to the ground before it turned into a huge flash of blue flames. After a few seconds the flames died down to reveal a very smug looking Marco who stepped closer to the two gawking people.

"Holy crap, that was awesome..." Lavinia muttered to herself, not really caring that he had heard and that it had probably inflated his pride to the point where she would be regretting that statement later. Marco gave a quick glance over the state of the staring redhead and that suddenly caused his smug smirk to turn into an angry frown as he focused on the large patch of dried blood on the side of her face where she had been hit hours before. His scowl turned from the redhead and he faced the man before him allowing his arms to turn into the blue wings, ready to fight.

"Whoa! Marco!" The redhead jumped between the two men, waving her hands high in the air to distract them from each other.

"What are you doing, girlie? Do you have any idea who he is, yoi?" Marco glared down at her and that glare intensified when she sheepishly shrugged her shoulder.

"U-uhm...Robert Smee?" Her meek answer caused Marco to almost growl in frustration and he attempted to push her out of the way gently. He was stopped when she quickly grabbed his wrist (or wing) and sighed as he grit his teeth in anger before he yanked himself free of her grip. It was strange for the redhead to see such a calm, collected man lose his cool over something as simple as a bounty hunter and this caused her to look at the pirate before doing something she would not recommend anyone else doing if they valued their life at all.

Lavinia reached forward, thankful for her heeled boots that allowed her to reach what she wanted to without having to tip toe. With careful fingers she pressed against each side of his mouth before gently pushing upward and quite literally forcing his frown upside down. She gave a large smile to the man before her who, once he got over his shock of having someone randomly play with his face, felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

* * *

><p>Luna scrambled through the bushes, pushing the tree branches that were in her way to the side so that she could walk through without getting hurt. Behind her Ace would complain about the amount of nature here. Apparently the village didn't enjoy visitors so they removed direct pathways, allowed the village to be circled with dense forest. Lucky for them they had a flying blue phoenix above them that would stop a few times and lead them in the right direction since he could see which way they needed to go. However, that didn't stop fire fist Ace from flicking fire in his hands earning a swift smack up the head from Luna.<p>

"Ace! This is a dry forest! If your flame so much as tickles a leaf we will all be toasted!" The white haired woman reprimanded the ebony haired male who, with a slight pout, pulled his cowboy hat over his eyes to hide the slight blush that crossed his face. Luna gave a dramatic sigh before turning around and ignoring the fully grown man who was throwing a tantrum, but she preferred him throwing a tantrum than for him to be falling asleep every few seconds.

THUMP

Luna stopped in her tracks before hesitantly turning around to where Ace had previously been stood. He was now slumped on the ground and sleeping, a small bubble of snot coming from his nose as he snored. With another dramatic sigh, she stomped toward the man and reached down for his arms and picking him up quite easily despite their height and weight difference. She then hurled the sleeping man over her shoulder, ignoring the gawking stares of the others around her who had yet to see her strength in action.

"Ugh, you Narcoleptic bastard" She muttered to herself before a fond smile twitched on her lips. They were good friends, he was one of the first people to actually attempt to speak to her. Sure, Ace often tried to impress her with his fiery powers and sometimes when a little overboard, but that didn't diminish the fondness that she felt toward the freckled fire man. However, she soon realised that she had lost Marco and her foul mood only intensified when she felt her foot get caught under a large root that was sticking out from the dirt and she fell face first into the ground. This also threw Ace forward slightly and the effect of him hitting the ground woke up the snoring man.

"Huh? What happened? Why are we on the ground? Are we taking a break?" He asked, massaging the muscles in his neck that felt quite tight considering that they were merely relaxing. He raised his eyebrow inquisitively when he heard the White haired woman groan into the ground before waving her arms around in frustration at how nature never really did like her. Before Ace could question the strange behaviour she was showing he heard Thatch shout to the two younger pirates that they should get out of the trees quickly. His voice didn't sound like they were in danger but they were both still very much intrigued with what was happening. Luna and Ace quickly sat up and ran toward where they heard their comrades voice, Ace eventually having to hurl the stumbling white haired woman onto his own shoulder so that they could make it to their destination quicker.

Eventually when the two broke through the tree line, Ace placed the grumbling and embarrassed Luna onto the ground who quickly pulled her dress down so that no one else could see underneath it. From the bright red blush that stained the cheeks of the ebony haired boy, she knew all too well that he had gotten a great view and this caused her to narrow her eyes at him dangerously. However, she watched as Ace gave a broad smile at something behind her and when she turned around she was positive her face looked exactly the same. Before them both was the very person they had ran onto this antisocial island to find.

"Lavinia!" The crouching redhead looked up to her white haired friend who ignored the fact that she was clutching her head and that Marco was giving her an extremely unimpressed look. However, Luna eventually came to a slow stop before her friend, took in a deep breath before hugging her best friend tightly.

"I'm so sorry for using your power! I'm sorry for not telling you, I'm sorry for putting myself in danger, I'm so, so sorry!" Lavinia could feel her friend shaking in her arms as she began to sob into her red hair. With a small smile, she carefully embraced Luna and rested her forehead on her quaking shoulder.

"I'm so proud of you" She whispered so that only Luna could hear the small words of comfort. Luna knew that Lavinia wasn't really one to show too much emotion because it embarrassed her, so when small things like this cropped up she learned to really embrace the fact that Lavinia was comfortable enough to show the side of her that she showed almost no one else. However, Luna pulled away from the redhead and with a determined expression reached into her back pocked and pulled out a black box. The pirates around the two girls on the floor watched with interest as Lavinia hesitantly reached toward the box, stopping a few centimetres above the lid and looking at her best friend with worried eyes.

"It's okay. You are strong enough now..."

With those words, Lavinia's eyes glowed bright red and energy poured from her hand to the box. The misty red aura seeped under the lid and flicked the black thing off revealing a glowing red pendant that matched the shade of her eyes, the tear shaped gem shakily began to hover in the air, surrounded by the red mist that began to pick up the pace, swirling faster and faster around the glowing red stone. Eventually, something began to happen to the pendant. It cracked. The gem that once looked so flawless split completely in half before slowly dissolving into the same dust that surrounded it. After a few seconds, the whole pendant was gone and in front of the dazed redhead was merely a ball of her energy.

"Is...that it?" A pirate asked, confused and looking at the faces of everyone there to try and find an answer. However, it was answered by itself, the glowing ball of red energy flung itself toward the redheads chest violently and she was thrown back with a slight grunt. Before Lavinia could touch the ground, she felt herself hit the chest of someone else, someone who had stopped her from landing painfully on the floor. She placed her head back onto the shoulder of the person, gasping for breath before a whimper left her lips as pain began to course through her body.

"Lavinia? Answer me, yoi!" Marco. Marco and his weird speech impediment. Marco and his stupid smug face and stupidly strong punch. Marco who was strangely beautiful. Lavinia tried to focus on something, anything and since Marco was on her mind, she focused on him. The pain caused her to grit her teeth and she could feel a warm liquid beginning to rise in her throat and even through the pain she had some decency to push Marco away so that the blood that she coughed from her mouth didn't stain his clothes.

Marco and his stupid weird clothes. Who actually smelt pretty nice, like a strange mixture of something masculine and the salt water of the ocean. Stupid, STUPID Marco.

She slammed a pale fist down on the ground and let out a pained cry as the feeling of burning began to focus in her chest. It felt like if it continued any longer she would surely die, it felt like something was going to erupt from her chest any second. In a haze of panic she began to claw at the burning skin of her chest, cutting the flesh that was there in an attempt to relieve the pressure. However, someone grabbed both of her arms and pulled them away from her skin, ignoring the cries of frustration. When she felt someone envelope her in a warm embrace, everything seemed to stop. The burning stopped, the pain stopped, it felt as though she had finally woken up from a nightmare and she gripped onto the person who held her tightly, who grounded her. The redhead could feel that she was shaking violently and gripping the shirt of the person holding her but at that moment she couldn't care, she just carefully breathed through her mouth and slowly began to calm down.

"Lavinia" She slowly raised her head from the shoulder of Marco and smiled at him, thanking him. With his support, she stood on her shaking legs and looked at the pirates before her. Luna stepped toward the tired Lavinia, staring directly at her chest.

"Your tattoo...It's changed..." Luna began, gently placing her fingers on the still warm skin. When Lavinia looked down at her chest her eyes widened and she tensed. On her chest was no longer that weird, pointless circle that she always wondered what it was. She could no longer pass it off as having the tattoo of a hula hoop on her skin, a symbol for her favourite type of crisp. On her skin was a circle and within that circle was the pendant in all of its flawless and shiny red glory. The pain that the redhead had felt had been the molecules of the broken down pendant pushing her skin apart, tearing her very flesh so that it could place itself neatly in the centre of the circle. However, that isn't what worried her anymore and she stared at the now deathly white face of Robert.

"You...You can't be..." Robert stumbled back, eyes wide in terror as he stared at the mark on her chest. The same mark that he had on his chest. Lavinia made no move to stop the man as he kneeled before her, she was struck with cold fear when he began to speak.

"Blood Witch, you have returned to us!" he bellowed. The pirates around her all stared at her unmoving figure, even Luna raised an eyebrow at her completely confused with what was going on. However, Lavinia couldn't comprehend what exactly was happening and she was thankful that Marco had yet to release her, still holding her gently by the arms. This didn't stop the unintelligent comment to seconds later leave her mouth.

"Oh fuck"

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><p><strong>Rubek - the plot is finally under way! I know it's all a little sketchy at the moment and in some places I really don't mean to be. However, I was constantly distracted by my scared kittens who would latch onto me whenever they heard a firework so i was constantly losing my train of thought! That reminds me, if you see something along the lines of 'FHNGNGBF' in the story, don't worry about that. I'll delete them when I find them.<br>**

**Tell me what you think! Leave a review if you so desire!**


	6. White Isle

The group of pirates that had been in the street had now shrunk dramatically. Most of the group that had travelled with Luna had returned to the Moby Dick to tell their Pops what had happened on the Island, if they could do that. In fact, the people that were left to figure things out still didn't know exactly what had happened themselves and just calmly went along with everything when Robert began to usher the small group through the gap in the wall and up into a bedroom that he had assured was completely safe. The man that was previously left unconscious had woken up to see the extreme damage that the building that sustained before promptly fainting with a dramatic whine when he recognised the famous Whitebeard Pirates were watching him as they walked past.

Eventually, the small group entered the room and Lavinia slowly closed the door. She knew that as soon as the door clicked shut, the string of questions would start and she herself didn't have a clue what was going on and she was the centre of the attention. The redhead gripped the handle tight and felt the stares on her back as she began to falter at closing the door, however she knew she couldn't pull it off any longer. Biting her lip, she allowed the wooden door to close with a faint click before she slowly turned around and looked at the group in front of her.

Ace had taken to laying on the bed, arms behind his head and legs sprawled over the blue duvet. Luna sat on the edge of the bed glaring suspiciously at Robert who was stood, staring with hopeful eyes at the redhead. Marco stood at the far corner beside the window, arms folded and eyes closed, some would assume that he was actually sleeping, but the pirates in the room knew better than to assume that. It was only Thatch who finally began the questions from his relaxed position on a very flimsy looking wooden stool.

"So, you are this 'Blood Witch'?" It was a simple question, one that Lavinia could have answered with a simple no and a swift slap to the broken hearted purple haired man in front of her. However, that small hope had been swiftly crushed when she heard the annoyed voice of her best friend pipe up.

"No! Of course not!"

"How do you know?!" Ace sat up slightly, supporting his now raised torso with his arms as he stared at the white haired girl.

"Yeah, she could have done something whilst you were apart!" Came the swift response from Thatch.

"No, She couldn't have! She has been asleep for 400 years!"

"She has to be the Blood Queen! She has the mark!"

"400 YEARS?! WHAT THE HELL?!"

"You were asleep for 400 years?! HOW OLD ARE YOU?"

The twitching in the redheads eye began to grow as the shouting voices of the people in front of her grew. A simple conversation ending in an all out shouting match between the group of people, they were all asking questions but not waiting for an answer from anyone. It was finally during the moment when Thatch stood up quickly attempting to shout down the frustrated Luna that Lavinia finally slammed her hand against the door, her red energy surrounding her body in a way that was supposed to distract them from each other but had actually come across incredibly intimidating.

"SHUT UP!" Her voice had echoed through the small room and effectively shut everyone up.

"Yes. I was asleep for 400 years, Ace. My age is not important, Thatch. I am pretty sure I am not this Blood Queen, Robert, and Marco..." During her talking she had pointed at each person, staring them directly in the eye and not leaving an opening for them to continue their arguing amongst themselves. When she finally came to Marco she blinked slightly and he merely stared at her with a raised eyebrow, same position as when he had arrived and looked incredibly tired with the whole thing.

"Marco...you didn't ask me a thing. Swiftly moving on..." Lavinia awkwardly looked away from the calm looking pirate and back to Robert who had the same expression on his face. Complete adoration. He had already dragged out several books that had the same symbol that they had on their body and he quickly passed her a large, leather book that looked like he had used it for target practice a few times. Lavinia held onto the book carefully. She felt herself wince slightly when she thought she heard something let out a slight ripping noise, indicating that the action of moving the book had somehow managed to cause a page to come detached from the leather casing. The redhead didn't have time to read the a whole book about this, so she opted for a simpler method.

"Tell me about this Blood Witch, Robert" He swiftly nodded his head, eyes gleaming in delight at the thought of talking about this seemingly amazing person and when he cleared his throat, Thatch let out a dramatic groan and sat back into his chair with a loud huff. He ignored the glare he received from the others and muttered "This sounds like it's going to take a while" under his breath.

"She was a strong, beautiful woman who fought against the corrupt system that would take over the world. The Blood Witch fought friend and foe, destroying everything that she thought was evil and purged the world of sin, the very thing that would turn this world into a greedy shell. Legend says that she would return and destroy the world entirely for sin has seeped into the very fabric of this reality. ONLY THE BELIEVERS WILL BE TAKEN TO THE NEW WORLD!" Lavinia stared at the man who began to shout his belief, pointing to the pirates that surrounded him, spit flying from his mouth which caused Luna to grimace at. However, he seemed to freeze on the spot completely, eyes wide as he shook violently at the grumbling voice of the woman he thought was the Blood Witch herself.

"What a bitch..." she muttered. Lavinia was positive that she was no Blood Witch and she made the decision that anyone in the room that did not believe her was someone that she refused to associate herself with. She raised her hand slightly when she saw the man give her a defiant glare, opening his mouth and her action effectively cut the words from his tongue before he could speak them.

"I am not this Blood Witch of yours. I wouldn't purge the world of evil since without evil, there can be no good. Evil deeds are what strive people to make a better world and stronger people with stronger resolve. The battle between the good people and the bad people has been something spoken of for millions of years before you and I, something that has caused the world to be created as we know it. Why would I want to destroy that?" Robert stood, gawking at the woman before him before he shook his head violently.

"It doesn't make sense. That mark...you _are _the Blood Queen...but something about this is so wrong..." He felt his brow begin to furrow whilst he was thinking hard and completely missed the pointed stare from Luna before the white haired woman stood up from the bed and stepped beside her best friend, gripping her hand tightly and with a deep breath, cleared her throat to catch the attention of the thinking pirates.

"I have decided...We will tell you everything about us, No more secrets." Lavinia stared at her white haired friend, eyes wide and fearful at the thought of telling these people something that could very well ruin the bond she had with them...or end up with them being chased by people who practice in trying to heal those who are mentally challenged. Luna didn't look up to the staring redhead but felt her hand begin to shake slightly before she returned the tight grip. Both of the women were scared, terrified of the thought. Before any of the men could speak up, Marco finally stepped forward and looked toward the two women with a slight nod.

"Don't you think that should wait till we are in front of Pops, yoi?" Luna stared at the blonde man before nodding her head slowly and letting out a sigh of relief as the pressure was released from her shoulders for the mean time. However, Lavinia's focus was drawn from the blonde pirate as Robert whacked his forehead and a bright smile formed on his face before he pointed toward the redhead.

"I got it! You have lost your memory!"

Silence filled the air.

"No...no I haven't..." Lavinia wasn't really sure where exactly he was going with his accusations. She would recall if she ever swore to wake up and destroy the world. The redhead watched as he furrowed his brow once more before beginning to pace around the room trying desperately hard to think of why a woman he knew was the Blood Queen was denying it. In fact, the whole group was slowly becoming impatient with the man, they had come into this room for answers but they really did have to leave now, although there wasn't a Marine base on this island, they were positive that there must be a Marine ship nearby that would have been alerted to the slight disturbance in the village.

"Well, why don't you take us to your temple? Every religious group has one...right?" Luna smiled at her own thinking but frowned when she saw a glare aimed in her direction before he slowly turned back around to face them all.

"It's not on this island, it's in a place called "Blood Witch Island"" Lavinia let out an exasperated groan at what he said and they could all almost see the question marks as they popped up and around his head as he stared at her inquisitively. The redhead merely shook her head in disapproval.

"Seriously? That's a completely lame name. I am ashamed that this religion has even been accused of being linked to me. If it were me, I'd give it a cool name..." She slapped a hand against her other one before rubbing her chin in thought, determined to find a decent name for the otherwise cliché and incredibly NOT SCARY name that had been given to the Island. Thatch rolled his eyes before standing up and interrupting the interaction between the group.

"That's all well and good, but we need to leave. Marines could be here any minute" They all nodded and headed to the door, Lavinia attempted to hand the worn book back to the purple haired man but he simply shook his head and allowed her to walk from the building with it and him happily trailing behind like a puppy that finally found its owner. The walk back to the ship was uneventful and incredibly quiet, there was not a single marine or a villager to stop them from leaving the island. In fact, it was so quiet that Lavinia could have sworn she could hear the cogs in the heads of everyone around her begin to turn as their thinking caps were placed firmly onto their heads and their brains started the little engines. Eventually, after passing through the trees with groans of discomfort as the branches lashed their skin, they finally made it through the dense trees and stepped on warm sand. The ocean was still calm which made them all very happy, it meant that their journey away from the Island wouldn't be difficult at all. With the large, hulking ship in front of them, Luna eventually began to panic and instinctively sought out the comforting hand of her best friend and gripped it tightly, something that caused the poor redhead to let out a whine of discomfort at the sheer strength. The rest of the group tried incredibly hard to ignore Robert who had insisted he travelled with them to the poorly named Island, convincing them slightly that he would be the one who would gladly show the group around to the correct places to find clues if they needed it. None of them spoke as they walked onto the Moby Dick, Ace and Marco walked forward with eyes in front, expressions showing nothing of what they could be thinking. Lavinia and Luna followed behind them, Luna had her eyes downcast whilst Lavinia looked at the pirates who made eye contact with her, effectively making them shy away from her gaze. Thatch walked beside Robert who he was clearly getting annoyed with, he crossed his arms as he walked, eyes closed and face twitching as he gave the purple haired man a final warning glare as he tried to wander off and look around the ship.

It was only when they were all stood, surrounded by silent pirates and in front of the large man they called Pops, or better known as Whitebeard, did Lavinia begin to share the fear that Luna was feeling. It was incredibly intimidating, standing amongst a group of people that you could probably fight at least half of if you needed to, but would struggle to escape with every limb intact and that is if they let you. Now, she knew that Luna and herself weren't weak, they were ex soldiers! However, something about the men that surrounded her told her that they weren't people to take lightly, especially not the men that they had spent so much around. Why else would they be commanders?

On pure instinct, Lavinia began to plan strategies and ways that at least one of the two girls could escape using. It wasn't that she thought they were going to attack for knowing a little about their past, it's just that the fear that she felt made her start formulating these things out of pure habit. By the time she heard a sigh leave the lips of the infamous Whitebeard, she had come up with two or three possible ways to get them out of a situation if the need arose, most of them ended with them being badly bruised and beaten as well.

However, Lavinia was tugged onto the floor painfully when Luna fell onto her knees with tears falling from her eyes, completely forgetting the death grip that she had on her best friends hand.

"I'm so sorry! I lied to you, Pops!" She kept her head down, white hair covering her face as she let out whimpers and sobs that racked her body. Her small hands were clenched as she had them on her knees and Lavinia felt so sorry for her, because of her appearance she has had to tell people that she considered family a secret that tended to scare people away, she would assume. Whitebeard didn't answer, he just sat there with an expressionless face as Luna began to tell the story, to explain where both of the strange women were from.

"My Name is Luna Pace, I was born in the year 1167 on July 14th. The land that I was raised in was called 'White Isle' and was famously known to be the most advanced island due to a famous crystal that gave the world premonitions and knowledge about the worlds future advancements, they had machinery that the rest of the world didn't" Lavinia tapped against the crystal that was embedded in her skin and felt a slight twinge of pain as the crystal tugged at the skin that held it in place, clearly it had not healed yet. The pirates that travelled with the two women all nodded in recognition before Marco spoke up.

"The Demons Tear, however, didn't you say it was made from your power, yoi?" The redhead was impressed, Marco was actually pretty good when it came to deductive skills. However, she merely gave the inquisitive blonde a smirk before turning toward the still expressionless captain of the ship.

"Maybe if I introduce myself, it might help ease your brains. My name is Lavinia Penance, I was born on April 20th 1009. Like Luna, I was born and raised on the island called 'White Isle' but my parents were scientists, saw me merely as an experiment that could only cry, not get the authorities involved" Luna wiped the tears from her face and she looked around when she began to hear mumbling from the people around her, she managed to read the lips of one pirate who looked to another incredulously. "Almost 200 years older than Luna?" They would whisper, not quite making the connection. Luna was scared, she didn't want to lose the family around her and began to slowly return to the shaking shell of a girl she was beforehand until Lavinia pulled her up so that she was standing in front of the pirates. A simple gesture from the redhead made Luna remember what Lavinia was always telling her..."Stay strong".

"You can guess where I got my powers from. Experimentation can do that to a girl. However, I couldn't control them and I had to split my power into two. One half stayed with me, the ability to create and mould one of the hardest stones found on that Island that was called Midnight Stone for reasons that I don't really understand myself. The other half of my power became this crystal. Within this crystal was the powers of premonition, but it's hard to control when you don't have the other half of the power to keep it calm. It killed millions of people, they became slaves to the visions, they created things that shouldn't have existed and wars happened over things they saw in the future...It was a pathetic sight" Lavinia spat the last words out with slight disgust. She had never understood how people could be so greedy when it came to power, how they could throw away the lives of so many for an extra zero added to the already ten zeros on a check. But, that wasn't what this chat was supposed to tell them.

"Of course, as another war began to split the White Isle in half almost 200 years later, I fought to retrieve the stone and to end the war that both myself and Luna eventually ended up being dragged into and we fought side by side" Lavinia stopped at that part, she had explained enough in her mind and everything else would come in time. Luna gave a weak smile to her friend, thanking her for talking in her place in the explanation that would have left her a sobbing mess on the floor. Robert was gawking at the two women, staring up and down their bodies in a way that hinted he didn't believe that the women were almost 600 years old.

"Whoa, whoa, so how have you both lived so long?" Robert scratched his head, either not noticing the eyes of everyone on him or choosing to ignore it.

"That's the fuzzy part..." Lavinia shook her head, a distant expression on her face as she began to think back to how she had got here, how they were still alive for so long. This caused Whitebeard to look down at her with a sad expression, he knew that face all too well. The face of not knowing something that they should know, sure, it wasn't the same as these boys not knowing which path to take, but that didn't stop the large but gentle man from humming slightly, rubbing his fingers over his chin as he looked at the two women in front of him.

"You can't remember..." He said in a way that the women knew it wasn't a question. It was a fact. The two women who were stood before him came from a time before their own and they didn't know how they managed to make it here. They were lost in a world that was completely alien to them both and they were completely alien to the people around them. He could see it in the way that the two women stared at him, through their bravado, they were terrified of rejection when it came to wanting to find a safe place to call their home and Whitebeard once again let out a gentle hum before a loud laugh tore from his lips, shaking his body and startling the people around him.

"GURARARARA! Well, what are we waiting for! Let's find out what happened!"

The two girls were shocked. Luna knew that Pops was a nice guy, but she didn't expect him to forgive her when she had lied to him about the very person that she was. However, the man who was laughing before her seemed completely at ease, not even bothered about that and she couldn't help but let out a relieved laugh of her own, they were accepted for who they were...maybe this was where they were meant to be? Maybe this was their home.

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><p><strong>Rubek - I know this chapter wasn't very interesting, I'm sorry! I just felt like it was needed to push the story line along. Worry not, I shall try and make the next chapter more interesting! If you spot any mistakes, please tell me! Leave a review if you so desire.<strong>


	7. Student to a Scientist

Lavinia had found the perfect spot on the large, whale like ship. Since returning to the Whitebeard pirates, she had found that the group of pirates and Luna needed time to talk about everything that had happened. The redhead wasn't part of the crew and felt like she would be prying if she entered that discussion, so, with that in mind she found a small perch on the side of the ship. It looked as though it was purely for decoration and she knew there was something similar on the other side of the ship, either way she was glad that it could hold her weight and she let her legs dangle over the edge as she stared over the waves of the ocean. Lavinia absentmindedly created a small, red stone that sparkled in the bright light of the sun and she admired the smooth surface before she flicked her wrist, throwing the round object toward the surface of the water and watched in disappointment as it merely plopped into the watery depths. Lavinia knew that it was possible to cause the stone to skip, the surface of the water was completely still.

"Damn it...How do people get these things to skip?" She created another one in her hand, glaring at the red stone as if the object was the reason she couldn't throw the stone properly. She raised her hand to throw the object but she felt the smooth crystal being removed from her fingers and she whipped her head around to stare at the person behind her.

"You are doing it all wrong. Here, let me show you" Lavinia watched in awe as the stone glided across the ocean surface, flicking droplets of water as it bounced further across the ocean surface. The redhead knew she probably wore a silly expression before she shifted to the side slightly, the weight of another person causing the decorative surface to bend to one side and she made sure to put her weight onto the other side to even out the small slope.

"Ace! Careful! If this thing breaks we are not going to enjoy going for a swim!" She heard the tanned, black haired man chuckle slightly before he perched slightly next to her, staring at the ocean. The redhead hid a smile before waving her hand in between them, her red energy creating a small pile of the red stones and she picked up another to attempt to skip the stone. It was then that Ace leaned over to her, placing her arms in the correct position and helping her throw the stone the right way. After the second time of throwing the stone, she let out a cheer as the stone finally skipped across the blue, sparkling surface. Ace laughed at her reaction before he looked down, the shadow of his hat hiding his face.

"I'm sorry for how I treated you..." It was a murmur and Lavinia could have sworn she was hearing things but when she looked upon his form, she knew she had heard correctly.

"What? Ace, you have been nothing but polite to me!" The redhead knew that Ace had acted indifferently toward her when he had assumed Luna and herself had fallen out, but he had never done anything that would have made her think he was a bad man. She noticed how the freckled man beside her treated his friends and she had no reason to hate him. "In fact, I am sure you are the most polite pirate on the seas!" Lavinia raised her hands in a cheer and Ace nudged her playfully.

"You don't even know that many pirates!" And they laughed. Lavinia wasn't very good at socialising, she was often called an introvert because she simply didn't like meeting new people. Being thrown into this time had ensured that she couldn't become a hermit, not now that Luna had found her and insisted that she stay aboard this ship. Of course, the offer of becoming a part of the crew had risen a few times, just gossip, but Lavinia felt uncomfortable for accepting if it was ever mentioned merely because the crew barely knew her, surely she has to prove herself some more? She was quite literally pushed from her musings as a small frame dived onto her back causing Ace and herself to fall toward the calm ocean waves. Merely out of instinct, Lavinia allowed her energy to form beneath the three of them, a large clawed hand diving from the ocean waves, palm open to catch the annoyed Ace, confused Lavinia and wailing Luna with a grunt of pain from all three of them as they landed.

"Oh god...let's not do that ever again..." Lavinia groaned, hurling herself to her feet and looking back at the tall ship. What she noticed first was the fact that the ship was actually pretty huge and she had to tilt her head back quite far so that she could see where they had been situated before. The next thing was the two smirking pirates that leaned over the edge and watched as the three of them stood up slowly.

"Woah...Lavinia, did you do this?" Ace was impressed, he watched as the red energy swirled around, weaving in and out of itself. It actually didn't look solid and Ace probably wouldn't have believed it was if it weren't for the fact that he was currently stood on top of the giant red hand. He watched as Lavinia shook her head, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Oh! Lavinia! Can't you get us up? Your energy must be drained from sleeping for so long! MARCO! HEEELP!" Luna waved her hands like a maniac, her wide red eyes almost bugging out completely when she noticed that the red of the hand began to fade and incredibly fast. The redhead barely noticed a flash of blue before she watched as Ace was lifted from the red hand and taken to safety on board the ship. The next thing she remembered was the gentle hiss of the waves becoming louder before they became muffled, along with the surprised yell from Luna. Everything drowned out, everything became dark and she let her eyes close as the exhaustion finally overwhelmed her body.

What she didn't really expect was for a bright light to appear from behind her eyes, overwhelming the darkness that has shrouded her mind. It was only when a quiet voice began to speak to her did she finally decide that she had gone insane.

"_Lavinia, don't you know this is wrong?" _It was the voice of a woman. The submerged redhead couldn't recognise the voice, but she knew that the woman didn't sound happy. She sounded sad.

"_This isn't supposed to happen. They are supposed to be dead..."_ Who? Who was supposed to be dead? What was she talking about? Ace? Thatch? Were they supposed to die? Was Luna supposed to die instead of save the Whitebeard pirates?

"_That's right. This has disrupted the timeline, prevented things from happening, stopped alliances from being formed and people to become stronger...You must correct this...It is the will of Aludoin" _The light vanished, the voice disappearing along with it and Lavinia felt a strong arm wrap around her waist before she was tugged up to the surface, immediately coughing up water and shielding her eyes away from the harsh sun.

"Lavinia? Are you okay?" It was Luna...her super strong best friend. The redhead nodded slightly before pushing away from her slightly so that she didn't strain her friend who was trying to swim as well. Eventually, she managed to wake up from her stupor thanks to the movement of her limbs, however, she glanced toward her white haired best friend with a grim expression.

"Luna...there is something I need to tell you..." Could she tell her best friend that her friends, her family, we supposed to be dead? That her efforts to save their lives was supposed to be in vain? That some creepy voice had told her that she was supposed to change that...as in, Lavinia might have to kill her bests friends companions for the sake of a creepy voice. It was then that Lavinia shook her head and chuckled, leaning back into the water so that the slow waves could pick up her body and she laid in the water, relaxing. The redhead didn't miss the questioning look that Luna sent her way.

"It's okay. It's not important anyway." After a few seconds of silence, she noticed that Thatch and a few other pirates had scaled down the side of the ship and were reaching out to the two women who accepted their outstretched hands and allowed them to pull them back onto the safety of the ship. Ace then jogged toward the two women, raising his eyebrow at Lavinia who was pulling her wet clothes from her frame and shuddering.

"Ugh. I've always hated the feeling of wet clothes on skin. Luna, next time you plan on pushing me in the water, give me time to strip." Lavinia teased the white haired female who rolled her eyes. Ace shook his head slightly before bowing to the redhead, something that caused her to stiffen and step back slightly in confusion.

"Thank you for saving me..." He was polite, incredibly polite. Polite, cute man with freckles? Lavinia could probably see herself falling for the man. However, a quick glance at her best friend made her throw that option into the very ocean they had crawled out from. Luna gazed at the man with nothing short of adoration glazing her red eyes, a small smile on her lips and a faint blush on her cheeks. The redhead knew that she could tease her friend about this later, and oh man she would.

"What's wrong, Ace? Scared of a little water?" The confused look that Ace and a few other pirates shared after her statement made Luna slap her forehead slightly.

"Oh! I forgot! You know pretty much nothing about the devil fruits! They can't go into the sea, they lose their strength and sink to the bottom!" Despite the depressing fact, Luna managed to say it with a wide smile on her face and cheeriest voice she probably could have mustered, something that caused Lavinia to sweat drop slightly before she fully registered what her friend had said.

"Wait...what? So, the fruit not only changed your DNA completely...but it somehow makes the ocean deadly? What is that? An allergic reaction or something?" The pirates around her shrugged their shoulders slightly, including Ace and Luna. However, when she heard a raspy chuckle come from behind the small crowd that had formed, she allowed herself to feel slightly embarrassed about her series of questions. The crowd stepped aside allowing a short, hunched old man to walk toward the inquisitive redhead. He was bald, had large round glasses and wore a long white lab coat that looked as though had to be cut in certain areas to fit his small frame.

"So many questions, child. Are you sure you have the brains to know the answers?" Lavinia didn't know what came over her after that statement, but her response was almost immediate.

"Child? Please, I am older than you and your own parents combined. As for my 'brains', you don't have to worry about them at all." The silence that enveloped the ship seemed to suffocate most of the unnamed pirates, causing them to awkwardly walk away from the group leaving Ace, Thatch, Luna, Lavinia and the old man to gaze at each other with intensity. It was only when Marco walked up to the small group did the man finally speak again.

"Luna, is this the girl you were telling me about?" Speaking as though Lavinia was no longer there.

"That's right, Mr Heckle. Lavinia here was a scientist" Luna slapped her back and caused the redhead to wince slightly from the strength of the blow before she shrugged off the gaping looks that Thatch and Ace gave her.

"Scientist, Science Experiment. Apparently that's the same thing to Luna" Lavinia shuddered slightly as she felt a small chunk of her dripping, red hair slip down the back of her shirt and onto her back and she quickly pulled her hair to one side, squeezing it slightly and allowing the water to escape her red tresses.

"You two should go dry off, yoi" Marco nodded to the two soaked women who nodded in response.

"You can dry off in my lab. Come with me, girls" Mr Heckle began to waddle toward a door that led into the ship, Luna quickly following behind with a slight spring in her step. Lavinia looked back at the still gawking Thatch and rolled her eyes before flicking water into his face, causing him to splutter slightly before glaring at the redhead.

"Come now, no need to stare. I won't deny that I am flattered though" With a wink toward the pirate who once again began spluttering (with a bright red face) she turned to follow the two who had left her. She was surprised to see that both of them had disappeared into the ship and she groaned slightly, knowing all too well that she would get completely lost in this hulking ship. The redhead still walked toward the door, glancing to the side slightly when she noticed that someone had begun to walk alongside her without so much as a word.

Marco kept his eyes in front of him, a frown on his face and his eyes looking as tired as ever. He kept his hands in the pockets of his blue trousers and, if she didn't need to see where she was going, she would have probably have begun to admire the strong muscle that covered his body. Instead, she looked away from the silent blonde before opening the door and walking into the warm coloured hallway. It was when she stopped in front of a crossroads that she stopped walking, looking for any sign that pointed toward where the lab could be. She felt a slight tug on her sleeve and when she looked down, she felt a smirk curl onto her lip when she noticed that Marco had pulled on the only patch of fabric that was dry on her arm. However, he turned away once again, walking down another hallway with a casual stride.

"Hey, Marco?" The redhead picked up her pace so that she could walk next to him, annoyed that she had to take twice as many steps as he did to keep up with the blonde haired man. Instead of responding, he merely glanced toward the redhead who was staring up at him with wide eyes, the red seemingly sparkling as her curiosity began to bubble to the surface.

"Who is Aludoin?" Marco felt his brow crease, but he didn't falter in his casual stride as he answered the redhead.

"Aludoin is supposed to be a religious deity, yoi. She is supposed to have complete control over time and reality, yoi" Marco watched as her expression turned to confusion before he stopped abruptly, watching as the redhead stumbled to keep up with his sudden movements. They were currently stood in a long hallway, the only difference is that there were no doors which meant that they weren't near the laboratory. Lavinia looked toward the blonde pirate who crossed his arms over his chest whilst staring at her with an unwavering gaze.

"Marco?" She tilted her head slightly when a lazy smirk graced his features, she wouldn't admit that the look really did suit the man.

"The crew and Pops were talking about you joining the family, yoi" It was a simple statement, one that caused the redhead to seize up slightly out of nervousness. She never really did enjoy being put under pressure and the smirk that widened on Marco's face meant that her unease was pretty obvious.

"Don't worry, yoi. You don't have to answer right away" It was only when she shook her head slightly did a frown cross his face. Lavinia then knew that he had taken that as a rejection and she quickly held her hands in front of her stopping him from speaking.

"I'm just worried..." The redhead murmured

"About joining the crew, yoi?" He had stepped away from the wall, hands still in his pockets and stood in front of the redhead.

"Sort of...Marco. I don't know how to say this, but...something happened when I was under the water..." Lavinia knew that she was probably going to sound crazy. In fact, she regretted bringing up the subject with Marco in fear that he would just drag her to the lab to have Mr Heckle label her as clinically insane. Almost as if sensing that she was worried about continuing, he let out a gentle hum, a sign that she should continue...and she did continue without once looking up at the blonde pirate.

"I heard a voice. Called herself Aludoin. She said something about how time had been changed, that I had to correct it" It was silent for a short while, although it felt like it was a lot longer since she was now fidgeting nervously and she was pretty sure her heart was beating at a dangerous pace. However, she felt a hand place itself on top of her head and out of instinct, she reached up to her head and grabbed his hand with both of hers, something that caused an amused glint to shine through his blue eyes. Lavinia noticed that her head had actually dried, probably thanks to the warmth of the hallway and the fact that his hand was a lot warmer than that of a normal man and she blushed slightly, knowing that he had taken the liberty to dry her off.

"Time has been changed, hm? What do you think she was talking about, yoi?" Lavinia let her hands drop to her sides, enjoying the feeling of his warm hands stroking through her red hair, drying them perfectly.

"I think...It's about the battle at Marineford" Marco's hands stilled, holding a small chunk of her hair as he looked down at the red hair in thought, eyebrows furrowing slightly before he let the piece fall down. He then reached for another section, repeating the process until her hair was no longer dripping down onto her clothes and onto the wooden floor. It was a comfortable silence, Lavinia was glad that she had told someone, even if she didn't know if he believed her or not, she almost jumped slightly when his deep, smooth voice broke the silence.

"I'll admit that what had happened was very surreal, yoi. One minute Pops and Ace was dead and I knew that Thatch was not with us...the next everyone was alive, running from the Marines, Luna leading the way, yoi. That was almost like a dream...a hazy, red dream..." He trailed off, twirling a strand of her red hair around his finger absentmindedly. It was only when he noticed Lavinia's red eyes widen in realisation did he let the now wavy strand of hair fall to frame her pale face.

"Marco...Luna used the power of this stone-" She tapped the red stone that was slowly being covered with her skin, she was sure it was a hideous sight to see as it was absorbed into her body "-To change the future. Your future, the future of the Whitebeard pirates. Your hazy red dream is what SHOULD have happened but Luna couldn't stand to see this crew being torn apart, so she saved you all..." Marco sighed lightly, stepping back from the redhead and placing his hands back into his pockets, his eyes becoming guarded as he looked down at her.

"And this Aludoin wants you to change things so that the future that I see in my dreams, becomes reality, yoi?" He watched as she nodded uncertainly "Will you do that?" The last question was barely a whisper, and the lack of his weird speech habit 'yoi' made her realise that he was being deadly serious. Lavinia looked up toward Marco, her eyes full of raw determination and confidence.

"No. That reality will NOT happen. I am not having my friend risk her life only to have the people she loves dies. I might not know you Whitebeard pirates very well, but a friend of Luna's is a friend of mine. I will protect her family, just how I know she would protect mine" Lavinia held Marco's stare, blue eyes gazing down into red, neither of their stares wavering from one another. However, a bright red blush formed upon her face when he leaned forward, placing his forehead upon her own and ruffling her hair so that she was certain that it was resembling a ginger bush. He didn't need to say anything, neither of them did, she knew that he had accepted her answer. So, with that out of the way, he stood up straight and continued to lead her through the hallways so that she could be taken to the lab that they were supposed to have been in at least five minutes ago.

Lavinia had discovered that the lab was at the very bottom of the ship...well, almost. It was pretty far down, anyway. When she stepped in, she was amazed with the equipment that Mr Heckle had around the room, some of the liquids that were held on top of Bunsen burners were slowly bubbling, others were bubbling without the heat and Lavinia could have guessed that to be a chemical reaction of some sort. At the far end of the room was what appeared to be a small library, a desk and chair situated in the middle, a sofa directly opposite that against the red wall and then the rest of the three walls of the small room were covered with large book cases. Three walls mainly because the fourth was clearly removed so that Mr Heckle could have access to the two rooms with relative ease.

"Whaaaat? You're dry?" Luna walked toward her best friend, furiously rubbing her white hair between a fluffy towel. "Did Marco dry you? Marco! You never dry me!" Lavinia watched in mild interest as the blonde pirate grunted slightly, walking toward the white haired woman before gently slapping her upside the head. It was instantaneous, her hair was dry and her eyes were wide from the slap.

"That wasn't very nice, bird boy. Lavinia! Did he slap you too? Don't you worry, we will get him back for this..." Luna marched off toward Mr Heckle who was grabbing different books from different shelves and Lavinia let a small chuckle escape her lips, glancing at Marco who was currently staring at the redhead. So, with an awkward clear of her throat, she walked toward the small scientist.

"Mr Heckle, what are all those books about?" She leaned her arms on the desk in the library, watching as he grabbed the last book that he deemed worth before placing them next to her arm with a loud thud.

"You can call me Dr. Heckle, Lavinia, all of my students do!" He said, passing her a large book that she took carefully.

"Student? Since when was I your student?" Despite this, she opened the thick book with glistening eyes as she looked upon the diagrams and the sheer knowledge that was stored in the book. Lavinia didn't even glance when he continued.

"Since I found out who you were! You have great potential if what Luna has been saying about you is true..." He let out a booming laugh, something that made Lavinia jump slightly. How can a man so small be so loud? Of course she knew that size never really did dictate sound, but she was still allowed to be surprised. "Now, time for your homework...all of these books are about Devil fruits. I'll admit that no one really knows how a fruit can change the DNA of whoever eats it, but these books are full of theories that could inspire you to find out!" To everyone's surprise, Lavinia pulled out the chair, reading the words that were scrawled over a single page before quickly moving onto another. She was completely entranced by the knowledge, however, before she could be completely submerged in her own world, she turned toward Dr. Heckle.

"Do you have any books on sea kings? I am mildly confused at how something so big can reach the surface when apparently they live so far down. Where I come from, if something lives in the deep, it stays in the deep. Not by choice, of course. They can't live without the pressure of the water above them and so, when that pressure decreases they eventually die..." The confused look that Luna gave her made her clear her throat awkwardly before continuing to the nodding scientist "It's the same with us, I heard that people are able to travel down to their level. How on earth are they able to survive under all of that pressure-" Dr. Heckle let out another loud laugh, patting her shoulder slightly before motioning toward the large pile of books that he had already taken out for her.

"Focus on one thing for now. We will get to seakings afterwards!" and so, Lavinia turned back toward the books that he had given her, an eager smile on her face as she began to read about the wonderful mysteries of the time that she had woken up in.

* * *

><p><strong>Rubek - I actually enjoyed writing this chapter. I am not too sure why, I assume it's because the main plot is sort of coming together. I hope you liked it! If you have any questions, you can ask (although I won't be spoiling the story!) and review if you so desire! I am always happy to receive some advice!<strong>


	8. Goddess Complex

Lavinia flinched as a bright light pierced through her closed eyelids and she quickly tried to raise her hand to shield herself from the blinding morning sun. However, that movement was jerky and her arm could not be felt at all. In fact, as she forced her arm to move it felt like she was carrying a dead weight that would slump against the table whenever she stopped moving it.

"Eugh...was I laying on my arm?" Peeking out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a small red mark on her arm that she knew would line up and match the side of her face and she sighed, knowing that she had indeed fallen asleep in the most uncomfortable position she could have slept in. Ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of the blood rushing back into her arm, she pushed herself into a sitting position and winced as she felt her back cracking in several places before she let out a small sigh of relief.

Lavinia had spent most of the night reading about the devil fruits, the theories, the differing types of devil fruits and the powers that they give. She was surprised to see that almost all of the powerful and influential people (be they evil or good) had eaten a devil fruit and had used the power that it had given them to get that power and influence over the people. The redhead could remember how she read a small story, probably false, about how they had discovered that Devil Fruit users sink in the ocean. About a boy who was famous for his swimming across the channel only to one day drown after eating a devil fruit. With a shake of the head, she stood up and stretched her legs, enjoying the feeling of finally not being cramped and crooked over a large wooden table.

Glancing around the wooden room, Lavinia noticed that all of the bookshelves were labelled according to the types of books were on the shelf. History, Medicine, Mechanics, Food, Languages, Religion, Maps...The redhead carefully stepped down the two small steps, not trusting her still half asleep legs with the duty of carrying her boot clad feet down the stairs, she didn't particularly feel like falling face first onto dusty wooden planks. Stepping toward the large bookcase, she read the small dusty sign that was messily hammered onto the top bookshelf.

"Religion. So, Aludoin, who exactly are you?" Tracing a pale finger across the different books, she stopped at a large one that looked pretty impressive. The words on the book read "The different goddesses of the islands". What are the chances of her finding the exact book she needed? Lavinia felt like some heroine in a story book, everything she needed was always just a stone's throw away, everything she was doing was being thought of and written down. I guess that is what people call "Fate", was there someone, or something, out there in the universe deciding what we were going to do with our lives? Scripting everything that was happening and what was to happen? Lavinia shook her head from the thoughts, yanking the dust covered book from the shelf before walking back to the table where the stream of sunlight made reading of the smaller words easier.

Opening the book, she grimaced at the condition that it was kept in. Lavinia could tell that the book had probably landed in the ocean a few times as the pages were almost all stuck together and some of the words were running into the sentence below, the pages were ripped from both sides, some of the pages almost falling out of the book because it was no longer attached to the spine. The redhead could feel her hopes slowly beginning to diminish, she never was a lucky girl and she began to wonder if the pages she wanted to read were in the book anymore, or were they floating around in the ocean slowly breaking apart from the waves...or maybe they had already been swallowed by a seaking that just randomly felt like eating paper.

Tracing a finger down the context page, she saw the name of the Goddess she was after. Aludoin. The name was strangely the only name that wasn't dripping down the page, the ink from the words above it seemingly rolling either side of the name and dripping down, avoiding the word completely so that it wasn't marred. The redhead knew that if Aludoin was real, and really was the goddess of time and reality then she probably would have done that, protected the source of knowledge that the person she was asking for help was seeking.

"Page 12, Aludoin. The Goddess of Reality" Lavinia mumbled to herself, picking apart the pages carefully so that she could open the 12th page with ease. Eventually, when she got to the page that she wanted, she admired the pristine white pages and block, black letters without a single speck of dirt. The picture on the side reminded her of the sketches that the people at her lab would draw when they had discovered a new specimen or what they would draw what they think their new experiments would come out. The redhead traced her finger over the black and white drawing, admiring how the woman in the picture was stood tall, proud and with long, black hair that billowed around her like a cloak. Her eyes were white, no pupils could be seen and this gave Lavinia the impression that Aludoin was blind. She could remember the theory that if someone was half blind, their eye that could not see into the real world could see into the world beyond, the mystics world. However, was that still the same with both eyes? And if that were true, why is the goddess of Reality depicted as blind when she can't even SEE into reality?

Before the redhead could continue to read the words that were dotted over the page, she felt a cold breeze drift over her skin and making her shiver.

"You ask a lot of questions" The voice made Lavinia jump and she stood up quickly, turning to face the intruder with wide eyes. She was expecting to see someone from the ship, their amused expression as they would laugh at how she would talk to herself, the questions she asked were never in her head, she would always ask them out loud and never realise. However, in front of her was not one of the crew members.

In front of her stood a tall, pale woman. Her skin was marred with scars, most of them circular, some of them straight. She wore a simple white dress, it didn't touch the dusty wooden floors. Then again, Lavinia noticed with shock, that her feet weren't touching the floor either. Long, black hair seemed to flow around her with the cold breeze that surrounded her floating body. The redhead glanced up at the woman's face, red eyes staring into blank, white orbs yet they felt like they could still see her despite that.

"Aludoin" Lavinia knew that she shouldn't feel the resentment she felt toward the woman in front of her, so why did she feel so much hatred toward the goddess? Lavinia tensed up with every slight movement the hovering goddess made, her glaring, red eyes watching each graceful movement that she made.

"You hate me because of what you must do. You must kill the people on this ship for time to go back to the way it was supposed to be." The woman spoke as though her words were gospel, and it caused an unknown rage to well up inside the redhead.

"I will NOT do as you ask. I could care less if you are named a goddess, if you were truly someone with control over reality then you should be able to see ALL realities that COULD happen. You should have been able to see the possibility that the Whitebeard pirates would still be whole, so why are you wanting them dead?" Lavinia stepped toward the floating woman whose expression did not change from the blank, indifferent one that she had since she got here. Of course, the fact that she didn't even react to what Lavinia had said seemingly angered the redhead even more and she could almost feel her red energy begin to well up inside her, ready to attack the woman in front of her asking her to kill her friends.

"Every reality that I can see, these men were not supposed to live. You and your friend were never supposed to save them-"

"If you are the goddess of reality then you should have been able to fix your own problems" She slammed her hand on the table, the wooden legs of the table groaning under the strain and force of her hit, breaking through the emotionless speech that the goddess was giving. Aludoin was speaking as if the loss of these lives meant nothing, but how could they mean anything to a woman who can't see reality?

"I cannot affect this reality directly" The goddess raised both of her hands, holding them in front of her face as if she was staring at her skin. Lavinia knew that she couldn't really see what was in front of her, what was she watching instead? What can her blind eyes see that makes her a goddess?

"If you cannot affect this reality then you cannot touch them. If I refuse to do your work then the Whitebeard pirates will remain. Luna and I will fight off anyone else you send to kill them-"

"You are right. I cannot kill the whitebeard pirates. I cannot affect this reality... But I can affect you and your friend." The icy breeze around her frame seemed to become a powerful wind that pushed the redhead back slowly until she was pressed against the thick wooden table.

"LAVINIA?!" At the doorway stood Luna. Her white hair whipping around her shocked face as she stared at the woman in front of her. Gone was the serene look that the floating woman held. Her eyes seemingly glowed as her face contorted to pure rage, she reached out a clawed hand toward Lavinia who was stuck from the powerful winds that were knocking her back into place every time she tried to move. Lavinia could hear nothing over the howling of the winds, her eyes began to water from the harsh winds that were thrust upon her.

She failed to notice that clawed hand reaching toward her.

Luna did notice, and Luna acted. The white haired girl jumped forward, her inhuman strength pushing her easily and swiftly through the harsh winds that were causing furniture, books and other science equipment to fly across the room. The cold from the goddesses magic seemed to cause her muscles to almost lock up from the cold, but she pushed forward when she noticed that the clawed hand was firmly wrapped around the throat of her best friend who seemed to be almost unconscious, probably because the winds were stopping her from taking a much needed breath.

With all of her strength, Luna jumped toward the floating woman before swinging her clenched fist toward her body. What surprised her the most was not the fact that she thought she would never hit the body, but because as her fist slammed against the dainty shoulder of the glowing woman, she felt the bones underneath crack and an inhuman wail to tear from the lips of the goddess who swung the redhead toward the white haired girl, causing them both to tumble into a bookshelf that was officially empty of books.

The winds stopped, the items that were being thrown across the room landed to the floor with loud thuds as the woman, suddenly no longer an angry demon, whimpered and clutched her shattered shoulder. Lavinia was gasping for air as she watched the woman in front of her.

"I will not kill the people I care about" The redheads voice was barely a whisper, but Aludoin heard her and she straightened up, almost like a robot. Her arm dangled lifelessly at her side and her face became emotionless once more.

"Then you have made your choice. You have chosen the lives of yourself and your friend over the lives of people who should not be alive. Your punishment will come in due time" And then, she disappeared. The room was silent, now that the winds weren't howling Lavinia could hear the sea as the waves gently splashed against the side of the ship, she could feel that Luna was holding her up gently since her body felt weak, probably from the fact that she couldn't breathe for a good few minutes.

"Lavinia...?"

Lavinia let out a groan as she righted herself before hurling her aching body into a standing position. It was during that moment that she explained to Luna everything that had happened, the voice that had come to her during her submersion in the water, the goddess that had asked her to complete a mission, what the mission was. The whole time Luna was completely silent. However, she still helped by picking up some of the things that were scattered over the floor and placed them back to where she could remember they belonged. After her explanation, silence descended upon the two but it was swiftly broken by a sharp intake of air.

"What in the world happened here?! GIRLS!" It was Dr Heckle. He waddled into the room that used to be his lab, staring at the instruments that were rolling over the floor as the waves of the ocean rocked the boat. Books were thrown across the floor, some were open, some were closed, but Lavinia knew that most of them would have one or two annoying crinkled pages from them being bent for two long.

"We were attacked, Mr Heckle!" Luna ran forward, avoiding the objects that looked breakable and sharp as she ran toward the short man. Lavinia blocked out their speaking as she turned to face the table that had the book of the goddesses on top. Maybe it would have some background information on the woman, an exact detail of her powers and she quickly jogged up the steps, leaning over the table to look down at the pristine white pages.

What the redhead didn't expect was for the pages to look almost burnt. The book that she had been previously reading was no longer even readable, not even the title of the book was understandable. With careful fingers, she reached toward the book, her fingertip barely brushing against what was left of the page before it burst into a cloud of dust that also quickly vanished into the air, leaving the stench of rotten wood behind to tickle her sensitive nose.

"What the hell is going on with the world that I have woken up in? What do I do?" Lavinia whispered to herself, staring out the small window that let in a bright stream of light. She could almost imagine the people outside, on the different islands in this world just enjoying the sun and going through every day as if there wasn't a single worry in the world, as if there wasn't people in the world that wanted power, abused that power and destroyed the lives of anyone in their way. The redhead closed her eyes, the sun that once pierced her eyelids calmed her frantic mind as it washed over her, reminding her that she wasn't trapped in a dark cell not knowing when the next time she would be dragged out, screaming, kicking and crying. The sun reminded her that she was free, the sound of the waves and the distance cries of the seagulls reminded the redheaded woman that she wasn't the experiment she used to be. Lavinia was now her own person, and she was finally free.

At that single thought, Lavinia opened her eyes. The warm light from the sun enveloped her and she spun around to face the two people who were muttering amongst themselves whilst picking up the objects that were thrown on the floor. Lavinia stood there, red eyes full of determination as they seemingly sparkled, the strength to make change coursing through her veins, the light that streamed through the small window made everything about the redhead glow. Her ginger hair was a bright orange as the sunlight reflected from her flowing locks, it almost seemed to mimic flames. Her pale skin became even whiter, the contrast between her eyes and skin became so noticeable that anyone looking at her probably would have been quite startled at the change.

"Luna..." The white haired woman glanced up, looking toward her best friend. She recognised that expression and stood up straight, waiting for her orders.

"You will tell the rest of this crew that they are under attack. They are to prepare for battle at a moment's notice, this woman has control over a lot of people." Luna nodded, watching as her friend carefully walked down the steps, the gleam of determination never leaving her eyes.

"Do we tell them that their enemy is a goddess?" A loud snort came from Lavinia, surprising Luna and Dr Heckle who was listening intently. Luna had told him of the attack that had happened here and he had no reason to not believe Luna, she never lies about things like that. Lavinia shook her head toward the two, a light chuckle leaving her lips as she walked toward the door before she finally spoke back at the two who were watching her leave.

"That woman was no Goddess" She proceeded to step through the door frame

"What-"

"Her scars...they were in the exact same position as mine, They looked exactly like mine. That can't be a coincidence." Lavinia watched as Luna's face went from confusion to realisation, her mouth hung open and she swung her hand forward, pointing toward the redhead as everything began to make sense to her "That 'goddess' is a delusional, failed experiment...I could almost call her a "Sister from another mother" if I felt like a kinship could be formed" With that being said, Lavinia strolled out of the room and began a steady stroll through the halls of the ship, stumbling footsteps of the two people behind her letting her know that they were indeed getting everything ready.

* * *

><p>It was getting dark now, Lavinia sighed and ran her fingers through her hair before gently playing with the small lock of hair that curled perfectly, remembering how Marco had done it. Behind her she could sense that the rest of the crew was both tired and apprehensive, Luna and herself had spoken to the whole crew about a defective experiment that was on a rampage, attempting to kill and attack the crew for simply being alive. They didn't seem impressed with this threat, but Lavinia was relieved that not of them placed the blame on herself or Luna, that would simply break her poor friends heart. In fact, they seemed thankful for their information and was more than glad to receive the help of the two women.<p>

The redhead stared out at the ocean, the sun was slowly descending behind the waves, causing the waves to turn a flaming red to match the sky. She admired how the stars began to twinkle and peak through the light of the sun, the gentle, salty sea breeze brushed against her skin and pushed back her hair, reminding her once again that she was free. Lavinia was safe and free.

The sound of the pirates finally vanished as they walked into their ship, she knew that there was one or two pirates on look out duty and were probably keeping an eye on her, no doubt. Lavinia didn't expect the people on this ship to trust her so quickly, but she was glad that they were all very polite despite the fact that trust wasn't there. Her mind was distracted from those thoughts as she felt a familiar heat creep up her back.

"Hey, Marco" Lavinia didn't need to turn around to know that the blonde pirate was behind her, probably curious as to why she was stood outside when she could be sleeping. A deep chuckle caused a smirk to form on her pink lips and she watched as he walked beside her, leaning on the railing that surrounded the ship and looked out toward the setting sun.

"Why aren't you asleep, birdie?" Marco raised an eyebrow at that question, his infamous lazy smirk still not leaving his face as he turned to face the redhead, resting his elbow against the railing as he watched her watching the ocean in front of her. Marco wasn't usually one to get attached, especially not to women, and he didn't really even know Lavinia that well to say that he was attached to her. All he could admit to himself was that he really did like the way she looked. He loved how her red hair looked soft and from what he could remember, WAS soft. He enjoyed staring into her red eyes as she was talking, they held so much emotion that he could almost guess what the redhead was going to say before she would speak. Marco found her pale, flawless skin to look incredibly appealing, and her smile that always made him smile was something that he just enjoyed seeing. What Marco felt toward this girl was not love, it wasn't even a crush. The Phoenix merely liked her appearance and could probably stare at the beautiful woman next to him all day, if it didn't make him seem weird.

"Oi, Birdie. Are you just going to stare at me?" Marco shook his head, noticing that the redhead was copying his position, elbow resting against the railing and facing the blonde pirate who allowed a smirk to creep on his lips as he watched the teasing glimmer in her eyes and watched as she bit her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing.

He lunged forward, impressing the redhead with his speed and he grabbed both of her wrists in a tight grip. Without leaving room to speak, he twirled around so that he was holding her arms over his shoulders before pulling her closer to him and jumping into the air, laughing slightly when he felt her arms tighten around his neck. He let go of her arms when he could tell she had a good enough grip on him before he allowed his arms to turn into the blue flames of his bird counterpart, the blue Phoenix. He could feel her muscles slowly relax as he began to straighten himself up , however, he wasn't going to let her relax just yet. So, almost as if he was showing off his strength, he somehow managed to flick the redhead off of his back, spinning around quickly before she landed with a groan onto his stomach.

"Y-you are so mean, Marco..." She ground out before looking toward his smirking face. Lavinia was positive that her face was beginning to match her hair as she noticed the odd position that they were in and the light from the flames that enveloped the flying pirate made it impossible for him not to notice and she quickly righted herself so that her face was no longer directly above his, but rather so she could lean on his tattooed, muscular chest that she loved to swoon over when she thought he wasn't looking.

"That's what you get for calling me birdie, yoi" He chuckled at the bright flush over her face before relaxing into a comfortable silence, he was watching the stars as he slowly guided them to circle the ship, he didn't want to be too far away just in case Marines or a very angry experiment with a goddess complex came to find them.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing..." He tensed slightly, feeling her warm breath against his skin and it reminded him that he never really has a woman this close...or rather, he hasn't had a woman this close for a very long time. Marco the Phoenix had been focusing so much on his work that he left no opening for women to stroll in, he had little time for the women that would faun over him whenever he walked into a town with the whitebeard mark showing proudly on his chest. He had a job that he needed to focus on, but during this time where they were relaxing after nearly losing everything, he finally let himself slip and he was positive that Whitebeard would just laugh, slap him on the back and say "Good on ya, son!" before letting out a loud, booming laugh at Marcos exasperated expression.

Marco chuckled, causing the redhead to sit up slightly and stare at his face, his blue eyes almost dancing like the flames around him as he watched her hair sway in the breeze like the real flames. Lavinia smiled sweetly at the man before laying her head back down onto his chest, exhaustion finally taking over as she allowed her eyes to close and sleep to take over her body.

It was only when she had finally fallen to sleep did Marco begin his descent back onto the ship. He gently hooked his arms under her body when his sandaled feet finally met the wooden floor and began a careful stroll toward the entrance to the ship, glancing down at the sleeping redhead who he fondly smiled at.

"Maybe I like more than her appearance, yoi" He mumbled to himself, pushing open the door and walking into the ship, not noticing or merely not wanting to notice Whitebeard still sat in his large chair, chuckling happily at his first commander.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm sorry I've been away for quite some time. It started off as a serious writers block before turning into "It's almost Christmas, I'll take a break". I'm sorry for any spelling mistakes, I will be going over this story and improving it once I have finished the initial story. Why? because I might be a slight perfectionist.<strong>

**Anyway, you can leave reviews if you wish. I certainly wouldn't mind hearing what you think of the story or of the characters. If you think it needs improving, you can tell me, I am always happy to receive constructive criticism. Repeat: Constructive Criticism. Which means none of that useless "You suck, your writing sucks, go to hell" Malarkey. Have a nice day! - Rubek**


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